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1.7.2000 Security: Your computer can sign contract for you
President Clinton shows his electronic signature after using a smart card that allowed him to sign his signature electronically in Philadelphia Friday, June 30. Clinton signed a bill giving a digital signature the same legal validity as a signature in pen and ink.

En français: Votre ordinateur peut signer des contrats pour vous
Le preseident Clinton montre sa signature digitale après avoir utilisé une smartcard qui lui a permis d'apposer sa signature digitale électroniquement à Philadelphie le vendredi 30 juin. Il a signé un arrêté donnant la même validité à une signature digitale comme à une signature avec encre et papier.

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President Clinton cemented a key building block of Internet commerce Friday, signing legislation that makes contracts signed by computer equal to those sealed in pen and ink.

``Online contracts will now have the same legal force as equivalent paper contracts,'' Clinton said in a signing ceremony near the place where Americas two bedrock state papers - The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution — were signed with the ink-on-paper names of the nation's founders.

Clinton said he believes that electronic signatures and Internet commerce are important new tools of the global and national economies.

Résumé en français

Le president Clinton a scellé une étape importante du commerce électronique, qui donne la même validité à la signature électronique que la signature d'encre sur papier.

Il est ainsi devenu légal de passer un contrat en ligne.

Clinton a dit que la signature électronique et le commerce électronique sont des outils importants de l'éconoomie national et globale.

Cette mesure prendra effet au 1 er octobre.

``With the swipe of a smart card and the click of a mouse, (customers) will be able to finalize mortgages, sign insurance contracts, or open brokerage accounts,'' he said.

``Firms across America are moving their supply and sales channels online, improving customer service and reducing costs,'' the president said. But contracts remained bound to pen-and-ink signatures to be legally enforceable.

By making electronic signatures fully valid, he said, ``companies will have the legal certainty they need to invest and expand in electronic commerce.''

The measure takes effect Oct. 1. As of March 1, 2001, companies can begin the electronic retention of legal records such as mortgages and financial securities.

The new law provides that no contract, signature or record shall be denied legally binding status just because it is in electronic form. The contract must still be in a form capable of bring retained and accurately reproduced.

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Revised: juillet 01, 2000 .

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