| . | The passage of the Information Technology Act 2000 in India with effect from October 17 has created a legal recognition for Electronic Documents. In the light of this provision, every act of a Company on the Internet, Intranet or Extranet may now be legally binding on the Company. Companies having websites should watch out whether any of the web pages constitute an 'Offer" or a "Warranty" on any of their product or service. More importantly,every e-mail received and replied by the secretaries of Company executives, may actually create liabilities on the Company at some point of time in the future if handled without care. In the meantime some of the new Non Cyber regulations that are coming out are creating complications in trying to recognize the presence of the Web and Electronic documents. An example of this is the IRDA guidelines for Insurance Companies which defines the website and e-mail as "Advertisements". Even in USA an attempt is being made to enforce the laws concerning "Advertisements in Print and TV media" to "Internet Advertising" as well. The cross currents such ill advised moves can have on the Cyber Law environment are complicated and may require close monitoring. If every e-mail is an advertisement and one has to watch out for "Disclosure Norms" we are entering an era of Cyber Chaos. It may be a great opportunity for Cyber Law specialists and may explain the reported "Gold Rush" for Cyber Law Education world over. But from the point of view of a peaceful Cyber Society, the life will get complicated. I wish that any regulation that attempts to define "Cyber Transactions" should remember that the ITA-2000 itself has extended the recognition of all laws to "Electronic Documents" and there is no need for each of them whether it is the IRDA Act or the Companies Act or the Advertising Guidelines to define what is a Cyber transaction in their field of operation. This attempt must be stopped forthwith as otherwise there will be legal complications on the validity of different laws based on the dates of the amendments etc. In the meantime however, a responsible Company dealing with Cyber transactions however has to guard itself against unintended violations of law and legal loop holes. They perhaps need to take up a "Cyber Law Compliancy Check" both on their web presence and in the Corporate environment and introduce systems to monitor the Compliancy situation continuously. Nov15, 2000
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