Widgets to Windows: The "Webolution" of Commercial Sales

Authors

• Joseph A. Zavaletta
• Edward B. Hymson

Abstract

Five years ago, a new "nation" developed unlike any other in history - it has no government, no political borders, no buildings, no army, no citizens, no elections, and no leader. But by all accounts, this nation has the most dynamic economic engine in history. Based on recent studies by the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce at the University of Texas at Austin ("CREC"), if this nation were ranked by gross domestic product, its 2000 revenues of $830 billion would give it the twelfth largest gross domestic product in the world, ahead of Canada and behind Mexico. With an average annual growth of over 50%, this nation could easily have a seat at a G-8 Summit by 2005.' What is the name of this new nation? The Internet e-conomy.

The growth of the Internet e-conomy has substantially altered the U.S. economy. Although still primarily based on traditional sales of tangible goods, the U.S. economy is moving increasingly to a web-based e-conomy with online sales of everything from automobiles to "info-goods" - products such as digital cameras, laptop computers, Palm Pilots, and wireless web-phones. Sales of goods requiring a few mouse clicks with an unattended electronic agent are now de rigueur in American commerce.

American law, however, has not kept pace with the exponential growth of this new e-conomy. Like an old, rusty trestle, the traditional legal infrastructure of a slower Industrial Age is buckling under the weight of the e-conomy. In response, legislators are scrambling to introduce new legislation such as the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act ("UETA"),9 which gives binding legal effect to electronic signatures and records. For example, the 2001

Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 393 (the Texas UETA), which became effective January 1, 2002.10 A few states have also enacted the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act ("UCITA"), which regulates the licensing of software and computer data. And at the federal level, Congress has passed the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act ("E-SIGN"). E-SIGN provides a federal legal framework for e-commerce, stating that in "any transaction in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, a signature, contract, or other record relating to such transaction may not be denied legal effect, validity or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form. Most recently, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws approved a revised Uniform Commercial Code Article 2, which incorporates electronic contracting provisions.

This paper presents relevant sections of revised Article 2, the E-SIGN Act, the UETA, and the UCITA and discusses how these provisions facilitate the webolution of contract formation in the new e-conomy.

Recommended Citation

Joseph A. Zavaletta & Edward B. Hymson, Widgets to Windows: The "Webolution" of Commercial Sales, 6 Computer L. Rev. & Tech. J. 243 (2002)