By Sally Watson, 6 August 1999 04:00
NEWS The UK government has missed an important opportunity to build consumer confidence in ecommerce by failing to give digital signatures equal legal status to their paper-based counterparts. The warning comes from UK law firm, Donne, Mileham & Haddock, which says the government's draft Electronic Communications Bill doesn't go far enough. Under the current proposals, electronic signatures can be submitted to court as evidence that somebody has entered an agreement - but there will be no legal presumption that the signature was fixed to the document by the person who owns it. Justin Ellis, member of Donne, Mileham & Haddock's Innovation and Media Group, said: "The Department of Trade and Industry backed down from rebuttable presumption because it received comments during the last consultation period from law firms which believed it didn't reflect the way the law currently stands." The objectors claim that if rebuttable presumption is applied to electronic signatures it will shift the burden of proof onto consumers to prove that their signature was been forged. But Ellis claims this is already the case with paper-based signatures and the government should go ahead with its plans. According to Donne, Mileham & Haddock, the proposals mean companies will have to run the risk that customers can disclaim their electronic signature. It predicts small businesses will be hardest hit, as they will be least able to afford software-based fraud detection tools and expensive court cases. To read the draft Electronic Communications Bill see www.dti.gov.uk/cii/elec/ecbill.html The government is inviting comments on the draft bill until 8 October. Any comments should be sent to: ecbill@ciid.dti.gov.uk Or let Silicon.com know what you think of the bill on: editorial@silicon.com
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