privacy in contract

I have came to this idea that in recent years modern contract law will essentially be the death of individual privacy - the basic argument being that people want their toys, so they'll click on abusive clickthroughs and EULAs that essentially sign away their personal data .
there is an intresting case that i invited you to read : recently Ben Wright has proposed that contracts could be harnessed on behalf of privacy - essentially, that consumers could put up their own websites with terms of use that require businesses to respect their personal information .Ben even points to a case where a website's terms of use were enforced against a consumer who made a contract over the phone, to demonstrate how the mere existence of the terms of use can be used in litigation.(see:http://www.texasbar.com/Template.cfm?Section=Member_Directory&template=/Customsource/MemberDirectory/
MemberDirectoryDetail.cfm&ContactID=210823)

I think Ben's argument is pleading, and I'd like to agree with it...unfortunately; there are a couple of problems with the argument that prevent me from endorsing it, as appealing as it may be. First, as a practical matter, it would be difficult to show that a company which sells an individual's personal data ever visited the website where the privacy protective terms of use were posted. In the case Ben cited to show that terms of use could be enforced even against a consumer who made a contract over the telephone, it was easy to prove that the consumer visited the website which hosted the terms of use, because the consumer was trying to enforce the website's privacy policy. However,a company which sells consumer data actually visited the websites of the consumers whose data is being sold. Second, even if it were possible to show that the a company which sells consumer data visited the consumer's website, there is no reason to believe that a court would enforce the website's privacy protective terms of use. For example, in the case of In re Northwest Airlines Litigation, the court refused to allow consumers to sue Northwest Airlines for a violation of its privacy policy. Given that, I see no reason to believe that a court would be any more solicitous of privacy protective terms of use that a consumer might put on his or her website.
I think the practical obstacles to implementing the idea are such that Ben's idea isn't something that most people can rely on.

"Minimum contacts"

"Minimum contacts" is a term used in the United States law of civil procedure to determine when it is appropriate for a court in one state to assert personal jurisdiction over a defendant from another state. The United States Supreme Court has decided a number of cases that have established and refined the principle that it is unfair for a court to assert jurisdiction over a party unless that party's contacts with the state in which that court sits are such that the party "could reasonably expect to be haled into court" in that state. This jurisdiction must "not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_contacts)
I know that this topic is not clear yet so to understand it better please read the below case:

Bragg v. Linden Research, Inc case

Linden is an online virtual world that provides virtual land in the lower price than the market. Mark Bragg found that by purchasing virtual land he can buy a land that valued $1000 only for $300. he did not read the contract carefully and also the contract had not clear detail so after a while Linden Lab claimed that Marc Bragg had violated their Terms of Servce by URL-hacking also Bragg’s account was suspended while Linden Lab conducted an investigation, and later closed completely. Bragg argued that by closing his account, Linden Lab also dissolved his virtual assets, which he valued at between US$4,000 and US$6,000.
Judge finding that Linden Lab met the minimum contacts threshold by his nation-wide personal marketing efforts to publicize Marc Bragg .The Court also denied Linden Lab’s motion to compel arbitration, finding that the Terms of Service represented an adhesion contract that was unjustly biased towards Linden Lab.
But in my opinion Bragg had some mistake he should view virtual property, read additional materials about purchasing virtual property, interact with other avatars that owned virtual property, and, ultimately, purchase virtual property themselves.

click-wrap

Have you ever face with a web site that you have to click on "I agree" to download or having transaction? This is a click-wrap agreement, made at or before the time of purchase on a web site. The purchaser is required to click “I agree” before the transaction will continue, the installation will proceed or the user will gain access to the web site.There are issues about how to treat terms that are not proposed or discloseduntil after the user has already agreed to go forward with the transaction and has tendered the required consideration. There are also questions related to disclosure about whether there was assent, when was it manifested, is it only for terms about which the user had knowledge or awareness, or does it extend to terms and conditions which the user had not read or understood.task force of the American Bar Association has released a set of fifteen strategies in five areas: opportunity to review terms; display of terms; acceptance or rejection of terms; opportunity to correct errors; and keeping records to prove assent.
read more : ELECTRONIC CONTRACTING: LEGAL PROBLEM
OR LEGAL SOLUTION?
By Amelia
I believe that we have to careful about this type of agreement because I, myself before read this article usually do not care about that and most of the time I just click on agree without reading the agreement and now I found that if I face with any problem because I pushed the agree, I could not defense!
What is your opinion my friend?
H. Boss 55

Contract Problem

one of my friend hamed bought a software and the software disks were sealed inside an envelope and on the envelope was printed the contract. but he did not know if he opens the envelope, he should agree to all the terms of the contract.
He lend it to his friend and this friend also lend it to another person and this process continued until the software received by one of the company's employee that made this software and the company sued hamed because he demolish their revenue by this action he is in trouble now what was his problem and what is this kind of contract named? please help him

The Contract Signing Problem

The lack of atomicity is the primary cause of the contract signing problem.When two parties are connected to each other via a possibly unreliable network, ensuring atomicity becomes a serious problem.In a contract signing problem, there are two or more parties who are trying to agree on a contract. Each party will digitally sign the contract to signal their agreement.A variant of the contract signing problem is the return receipt problem or certified mail problem.
see the below example:
Alice and Bob jointly write down the contract, or have their lawyers do it for them. Now both Alice and Bob have a copy of the contract. The contract is not signed yet. Next, Alice signs her copy of the contract and sends it to Bob.
When he receives the signed contract, Bob signs his contract and sends it to Alice.
Now both Alice and Bob have a contract which has both their signatures on it. If Alice wants a return receipt from Bob, then the process is very similar: Alice indicates in her message that she wants a return receipt, so Bob obligingly fills one out and sends it back,
This protocol does not work. Here is a story which shows why:

One day Alice and Bob wanted to sign a contract. "Hey," Alice e-mailed Bob, "I will bet you US$15 that the Nikkei rises 3% tomorrow!" Bob idled a moment, then sent back the message "OK, but if not, then I get your CD collection." After thinking a moment, they decided to make up a real contract ... just in case one of them got "cold feet."

Alice and Bob drew up a contract. Alice signed her copy and sent it to Bob. Then she waited. She waited some more. Still no response from Bob.

Suppose that the next day, the Nikkei rose 2.5%. Eagerly anticipating her money, Alice e-mails Bob, including a copy of their contract. Much to her dismay, Bob's response is "Oh, so that's where that contract went...I thought you didn't want to do that anymore. I mean, I didn't hear anything from you!"

Alternatively, maybe the Nikkei rose 3.5%. The next day, Alice receives an email: "Coming for CD collection. See you at 2:00 - Bob." Alice sits back in her chair and wonders just what happened.

What Went Wrong?
When Bob stopped responding, Alice assumed that he had not received her copy of the contract. In fact, Bob was waiting to see whether he liked the way the contract would turn out. Only after he was sure of the outcome did he decide whether or not to honor the contract. He could do this because Alice was bound to the contract before Bob.

Notice that Alice has no way to determine if Bob's failure to respond is malicious. Furthermore, she has no means of convincing others of his malicious actions. This is the contract signing problem.
read more:http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds7-1/contract.html#MERKLE

E-contract law in U.S.

"United States basic contractual rules are found in the Uniformed Commercial Code (U.C.C.) and state judicial opinions published by the Restatement of Contracts. The U.C.C. is a set of uniformed commercial rules that have been adopted by most states. U.C.C. Article 2 refers to the sale of goods and Article 2A refers to the lease of goods including computer equipment. Thus, the U.C.C. applies to electronic contracts for the sale of goods. The U.C.C. does not apply to the online sale of services.the U.C.C. clearly applies to the online sale of goods; and it may also apply to the sale of certain electronic materials depending on the jurisdiction, the type of 'electronic material,' and the amount of service that this sale entails."
see more :http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?id=1913&s=latestnews

What is E-contract means?

E-contract is a contract modeled, specified, executed and deployed by a software system. E-contracts are conceptually very similar to traditional (paper based) commercial contracts. Vendors present their products, prices and terms to prospective buyers. Buyers consider their options, negotiate prices and terms (where possible), place orders and make payments. Then, the vendors deliver the purchased products. Nevertheless, because of the ways in which it differs from traditional commerce, electronic commerce raises some new and interesting technical and legal challenges. Therefore the object is to create default rules for attributing a message to a party so as to avoid any fraud and discrepancy in the contract.
WROTE BY:Vasudha Tamrakar & Pratibha Pal (http://www.legalserviceindia.com/articles/ecta.htm)