Digital Signature Law of the United Nations, European Union, United Kingdom and United States: Promotion of Growth in E-Commerce With Enhanced Security

Digital signatures enhance the ability of contracting parties to authenticate electronic communication. Sophisticated encryption and decryption technology is used to verify the identity of the other party to the electronic transaction. Digital signature law, necessary for adjudication of disputes between parties in e-commerce, is still in its infancy. This article covers basic digital signature law of the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The United Nations’ Model Law of Electronic Commerce of 1996 (“MLEC”) had many implications. The MLEC approved the utilization of electronic signatures, stated that electronic signatures would have the same legal impact as an ink signature, and remained technologically-neutral, i.e., did not mandate the utilization of any specific type of technology. The admissibility of “advanced” electronic signatures in legal proceedings and seemed to favor the more sophisticated technologies such as public-key-infrastructure (“PKI”). Utilization of PKI would provide the ultimate in digital signature security. The United Kingdom enacted the Electronic Communications Act in 2000. The Act recognized the validity of electronic signatures and affirmed their admissibility as evidence in court. Furthermore, the United Kingdom’s Electronic Signatures Regulations went into force in 2002. The purpose of the regulations was to implement certain provisions of the European Union’s E-Signatures Directive. However, the United Kingdom remained technologically-neutral. In the 1990s, most states in the United States adopted some form of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, which mandates broad recognition of electronic signatures. In order to achieve more uniformity in the laws of the states, the United States. federal government enacted “E- Sign” in 2000, which preempted all existing state law unless it was the original form of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. Unfortunately, United States jurisdictions now have a “patchwork quilt” of dissimilar law regarding digital signatures. The United States is technologically-neutral. The article concludes with recommendations for improvement of digital signature laws

A Critique Of India\u27s Information Technology Act And Recommendations For Improvement

India\u27s Information Technology Act (/TA) recognizes the legal validity of £-documents, £-signatures and £-contracts, and also promotes £-government. £-documents are not allowed in wills, trusts, sales of real property, negotiable instruments and powers-of-attorney. An £-document may be used to satisfy a statutory requirement of writing; authentication; retention; publication; and governmental filing, issuance or payment. A digital signature complies with a statutory requirement for a handwritten signature to be affixed on paper. The /TA includes £-contract rules relating to: attribution, acknowledgement of receipt, and time and place of transmission and reception of an electronic message. Rules are provided for the regulation of Certification Authorities (CA) and third parties whose duty is to vouch for the authenticity and integrity of an electronic message that has been signed with a digital signature. Those rules are implemented by the Controller. India has adopted a compulsory system of CA licensing; no party may offer certification services without a license. A CA is mandated to: publicly display its license; issue certificates to successful applicants; and manage outstanding certificates by keeping the information in them current, and suspending or revoking them if they contain inaccuracies. A CA \u27s license may be suspended or revoked for good cause shown. Subscribers are responsible for ensuring that all information given to the CA is accurate and that all information contained in the certificate is correct. Ordinarily, network service providers have limited liability. The /TA includes civil and criminal offenses and related penalties. The Controller appoints adjudicating officers to hear both civil and criminal cases relating to the /TA and to render decisions accordingly. Appeal may be taken to the Cyber Regulations Appellate Tribunal and eventually to the High Court. The federal government of India and the Controller are empowered to issue regulations necessary for implementation of the /TA. The objectives of this article are to: (1) introduce the reader to India\u27s economy and E-commerce activity; (2) explain the role of electronic signatures; (3) explain the role of the evolution of electronic signature law; (4) analyze India\u27s Information Technology Act (ITA); and ( 5) make recommendations for improvement of that statute

A Critique of Argentine E-Commerce Law and Recommendations for Improvement

Argentina has been experiencing rapid growth in internet accessibility and E-commerce, but its E-commerce laws need to be updated. The nation enacted a Digital Signature Law (“DSL”) in 2001. Digital signatures and documents are valid in Argentina if they meet stringent security requirements and can be used to comply with legal requirements for: a handwritten signature; a paper document; an original paper document; and retention of a paper document. A digital certificate must be issued by a licensed certification authority (“CA”) and must accurately identify the subscriber. The CA will issue a private key to the subscriber with the certificate, and the CA must revoke the certificate if security is compromised. CA’s are licensed and regulated by the federal government and may be audited and sanctioned for legal violations. CA’s may be responsible for damages incurred by third parties due to the CA’s acts or omissions. Exemplary attributes of this law include: (1) mandatory licensing of CA’s; (2) the rights and responsibilities of subscribers; (3) mandatory E-government with free CA service; and (4) the authorization of Registration Authorities to work for CA’s in the processing of applications for certificates. The DSL provides a satisfactory legal foundation for Argentine E-commerce, but it needs to be calibrated and supplemented. Recommended changes and additions to Argentine E-commerce law include: (1) enactment of a comprehensive Electronic Transactions Law which will incorporate all laws pertinent to E-commerce, including E-contract rules; (2) recognition of the validity of the electronic form in compliance with several additional requirements of other statutes, including notarization; (3) deletion of all exclusions from coverage, which will potentially allow E-signatures and E-documents to be used in all situations; (4) addition of rules for electronic automated contracts and electronic carriage contracts; (5) addition of consumer protections for E-buyers; (6) establishment of Information Technology Courts for resolution of E-commerce disputes; (7) creation of long-arm jurisdiction over foreign E-commerce parties; (8) licensing of the Argentine Post Office as a CA; (9) adoption of a National ID Card containing a digital signature which can be activated by a CA, including the Post Office; (10) enactment of computer crimes, including Intentional Injection of a Virus into a Computer System; and (11) enactment of a third-generation E-signature law to replace the first-generation DSL

Quantum entanglement and disentanglement of multi-atom systems

We present a review of recent research on quantum entanglement, with special emphasis on entanglement between single atoms, processing of an encoded entanglement and its temporary evolution. Analysis based on the density matrix formalism are described. We give a simple description of the entangling procedure and explore the role of the environment in creation of entanglement and in disentanglement of atomic systems. A particular process we will focus on is spontaneous emission, usually recognized as an irreversible loss of information and entanglement encoded in the internal states of the system. We illustrate some certain circumstances where this irreversible process can in fact induce entanglement between separated systems. We also show how spontaneous emission reveals a competition between the Bell states of a two qubit system that leads to the recently discovered "sudden" features in the temporal evolution of entanglement. An another problem illustrated in details is a deterministic preparation of atoms and atomic ensembles in long-lived stationary squeezed states and entangled cluster states. We then determine how to trigger the evolution of the stable entanglement and also address the issue of a steered evolution of entanglement between desired pairs of qubits that can be achieved simply by varying the parameters of a given system.Comment: Review articl

The First Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has validated and made publicly available its First Data Release. This consists of 2099 square degrees of five-band (u, g, r, i, z) imaging data, 186,240 spectra of galaxies, quasars, stars and calibrating blank sky patches selected over 1360 square degrees of this area, and tables of measured parameters from these data. The imaging data go to a depth of r ~ 22.6 and are photometrically and astrometrically calibrated to 2% rms and 100 milli-arcsec rms per coordinate, respectively. The spectra cover the range 3800--9200 A, with a resolution of 1800--2100. Further characteristics of the data are described, as are the data products themselves.Comment: Submitted to The Astronomical Journal. 16 pages. For associated documentation, see http://www.sdss.org/dr

A Critique of Argentine E-Commerce Law and Recommendations for Improvement

Argentina has been experiencing rapid growth in internet accessibility and E-commerce, but its E-commerce laws need to be updated. The nation enacted a Digital Signature Law (“DSL”) in 2001. Digital signatures and documents are valid in Argentina if they meet stringent security requirements and can be used to comply with legal requirements for: a handwritten signature; a paper document; an original paper document; and retention of a paper document. A digital certificate must be issued by a licensed certification authority (“CA”) and must accurately identify the subscriber. The CA will issue a private key to the subscriber with the certificate, and the CA must revoke the certificate if security is compromised. CA’s are licensed and regulated by the federal government and may be audited and sanctioned for legal violations. CA’s may be responsible for damages incurred by third parties due to the CA’s acts or omissions. Exemplary attributes of this law include: (1) mandatory licensing of CA’s; (2) the rights and responsibilities of subscribers; (3) mandatory E-government with free CA service; and (4) the authorization of Registration Authorities to work for CA’s in the processing of applications for certificates. The DSL provides a satisfactory legal foundation for Argentine E-commerce, but it needs to be calibrated and supplemented. Recommended changes and additions to Argentine E-commerce law include: (1) enactment of a comprehensive Electronic Transactions Law which will incorporate all laws pertinent to E-commerce, including E-contract rules; (2) recognition of the validity of the electronic form in compliance with several additional requirements of other statutes, including notarization; (3) deletion of all exclusions from coverage, which will potentially allow E-signatures and E-documents to be used in all situations; (4) addition of rules for electronic automated contracts and electronic carriage contracts; (5) addition of consumer protections for E-buyers; (6) establishment of Information Technology Courts for resolution of E-commerce disputes; (7) creation of long-arm jurisdiction over foreign E-commerce parties; (8) licensing of the Argentine Post Office as a CA; (9) adoption of a National ID Card containing a digital signature which can be activated by a CA, including the Post Office; (10) enactment of computer crimes, including Intentional Injection of a Virus into a Computer System; and (11) enactment of a third-generation E-signature law to replace the first-generation DSL