House Subcommittee Oks E-SIGN, Database Bills.

Two important bills to enable e-commerce to grow more easily on the Internet are now on their way to the full House Committee on Commerce, after a markup vote by the Commerce Committee_s Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection. Parts of both bills - the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (E-SIGN) Act, H.R. 1714, and the Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act, H.R. 1858 - were unanimously marked up by separate voice votes. Both bills were introduced by full Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley, R-Va The E-SIGN bill would legalize the use of digital signatures, making them as legally binding as a signature on a piece of paper. The bill, which Bliley said is needed to remove legal uncertainties surrounding the status of electronic signatures and records, also establishes federal rules for digital signatures. The legislation is similar to a bill proposed by Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich. That legislation was approved by the Senate Committee on Commerce last month. Titles 1 and 2 of H.R. 1714 were marked up with one amendment, written by Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La.that made some changes to the legislation. Among the changes were one that more closely parallels the definition of an "electronic signature" with one adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on State Law_s Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, Bliley said. The amendment also gives states an extra two years, up to four years total, to enact digital signatures, he also said. The Secretary of Commerce would also have the power to "take any action that would adversely affect consumer privacy," and to promote the use of electronic signatures, Bliley added. The bill is designed to protect intellectual property databases and other types of electronic lists, while protecting database publishers from digital "pirates," as Bliley called them.