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The Warehouse at Camden
Yards, South 351 West Camden Street Suite 800 Baltimore, Maryland 21201 410-659-9796 – phone 410-659-9799 – fax http://www.eoriginal.com |
April 20, 2001
Ms. Josephine Scarlett
Office of the Chief Counsel
National Telecommunications and
Information Administration
Room 4713 HCHB
1401 Constitution Avenue
Washington, DC 20230
Re: Comments on Section 105(a)
Electronic
Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act
Dear Ms. Scarlett:
Thank you for extending the opportunity to respond to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (“NTIA”) request for comments on section 105(a) of the Electronic Signatures in Global National Commerce Act (“ESIGN” or “the Act”). As the request outline states, e-commerce has contributed significantly to the growth of the U.S. economy. The increase of commercial transactions over the Internet created a need for uniform rules and governance. The recent enactment of ESIGN will help to facilitate the use of electronic documents in domestic and international commerce by reinforcing the validity and enforceability of electronic contracts and signatures.
eOriginal,
Inc. (“eOriginal”) is the leading provider of a comprehensive
business-to-business e-commerce solution enabling enterprises to execute
secure, online business transactions in which legally enforceable electronic
documents completely replace paper as the essential high value assets of source
records of a deal. The company’s
patented[1]
business process provides the ability to create Electronic Original™ documents
that are unique, identifiable, authentic and unalterable, survive the execution
of the transaction and serve as permanent, original source records in electronic
form. Through eOriginal’s
patented process, Electronic Original™
documents are as authentic and trustworthy as signed, legally enforceable paper
documents.
eOriginal
is the only company that offers a complete, comprehensive and integrated solution
capable of creating Electronic Original™ documents that are legally accepted as
the equivalendequivalent of electronic negotiable
instruments and insured by a respected global insurance provider, and the only
e-commerce solution that fully complies with all six transferable record
criteria of ESIGN and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA)
legislation. ESIGN defines control of a
record as “a system employed for evidencing the transfer of interests in the
transferable record reliably establishes that person as the person to which the
transferable record was issued or transferred.” The eOriginal™ system uniquely gives “control” to
the person that has ownership of a transaction record. According to ESIGN, a system satisfies
“control” when a transferable record is created, stored, and assigned in such a
manner that “a single authoritative copy of the transferable record exists
which is unique and identifiable”. An
Electronic Original™ document established in the eOriginal™
system is “unique” due to the system controls which limit only one document to
be filed; “identifiable” due to the system controls that apply both unique
transaction and document identifiers, as well as business rules which governs
the location and retrieval of any record; and “unalterable” due to the controls
which prohibit the editing or alteration of any Electronic Original™
document. In addition, all subscribers
to an eOriginal™ system legally agree/consent to treat the
Electronic Original™ of a record stored in the Trusted Custodial Utility™
repository as the authoritative copy of that document, i.e., the legal original. ESIGN also states that “the authoritative
copy identifies the person asserting control as: A.) the person to which the transferable record was issued; or
B.) if the authoritative copy indicates that the transferable record has been
transferred, the person to which the transferable record was most recently
transferred”. The eOriginal™
system contains an automated chain of custody/evidence which assures that the
controlling authoritative copy reflects any transfer of control of a
record. The eOriginal™
system access controls limit who can initiate transfer of control or ownership,
and contains the chain of custody/evidence of each person receiving the
transferred record.
How do we build
the eOriginal™ process that satisfies the criteria listed
above? eOriginal's
technology integrates best-of-breed public cryptography systems, electronic
signatures, smart card and portable token security devices, imaging and
document management, and secure electronic storage. When created, each Electronic Original™ document is given a
time/date stamp and is resealed so that it is unalterable. The digital signature placed on an
Electronic Original™ document can be verified through public key infrastructure
cryptography. Parties wishing to alter
the document cannot do so without detection.
Once an Electronic Original is created, it cannot be revised. Like a stock certificate, a new Electronic
Original™ document must be created that is digitally signed and given a new
time/date stamp. An electronic audit
trail is created and can be viewed and verified at any time. The result is a secure and trusted
environment in which to completely execute critical business transactions, and
trade or transfer legally enforceable equivalents of electronic negotiable
instruments such as electronic mortgagespromissory notes,
deeds, leases, bills of lading, letters of credit, regulatory filings and stock
certificates. eOriginal
ensures the authenticity of Electronic Original™ documents, the identify of the
signatories and the integrity of the content.
BENEFIT TO CONSUMERS
The
driving force behind e-commerce is a single, critical objective: to completely execute traditional business
transactions without paper to realize increased speed and accuracy, and
resulting efficiencies that drive cost savings. The eOriginal™ system unlocks value by
significantly increasing transaction speed and accuracy for subscribers of the
system to better serve their customers, and by creating efficiency-driven cost
savings within subscriber organizations.
eOriginal also offers the ability to create greater market
share and penetration by enabling fully electronic on-line transactions.
eOriginal
recently completed a pilot program in
Florida that delivered the first end-to-end electronic mortgage
closings in history in Florida last year and has subsequently completed end-to-end
electronic mortgage closings in New York using the Internet as a
communication and distribution channel. The system demonstrated significant savings
fromof
$75000 - $1000 per
originated loan whichloan, which equated to a large percentage or 40% saved in of the loan life cycle costs. and In addition, the reducedtion the in cycle time of loan
closing to market delivery from was reduced from 45 days to fivethree hours. Additional benefits include increased risk management of
mishandled documents, errors and omissions and a reduction
of administrative staff, increased
production, reduced administrative and training costs, and improved
customer service and greatly reduced risk associated with mishandled
documents, errors and omissions.
Yours
very truly,
Samantha
H. Heath
Director,
Legal Services