I've been trying to find out a bit more about digital signatures and exactly what their validity is in South Africa. Paul Jacobson posted an article on his blog in response to a question I asked him.

The starting point for a discussion about digital signatures in the context of South African law is the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act which was passed in 2002 or so. The ECT Act started with the basic premise that digital communications are no less valid than paper based communications. An important consideration that was taken into account when the Act was drafted is that the Act should be technology neutral so that it isn't quickly dated as technologies evolve. This translated into an Act that sets out certain features and technology neutral requirements for things like digital signatures which can be used to determine whether the signature concerned (in this example) are satisfactory.

Full article on Jacobson Attorneys Blog
I'm busy trying to find out more and would really like to know what you think of this - please read through the blog. There are a whole bunch of other issues which can also be impacted by this (such as electronic tax invoices). I'll try to elaborate on this shortly.

Do any of you sign anything digitally? Ever thought about how this could change the way you do business?