Last year as I penned the introduction to the Annual Survey of the Law of Cyberspace, Napster was in the final stages of its bankruptcy proceedings. Today, as I write this introduction, the company formerly known as AOL Time Warner opted to drop the reference to AOL and change its name to simply "Time Warner." Despite events such as these that seem to portend the downfall of the World Wide Web, the Internet, and computer technology in general, continue to change the practice of business lawyers. The authors contributing to this year's Annual Survey of the Law of Cyberspace provide an excellent set of articles to help business lawyers working with electronic forms of contracts cope with these changes.

This year's survey begins with a repeat performance by the same group of authors who, in the 2001 Survey, published the seminal article on creating enforceable "click-through" agreements. (1) This latest installment by the group discusses the enforceability of "browse-wrap" agreements. As did its predecessor, this article contains many practical tips for business lawyers representing clients with a presence on the Internet.

The second article also addresses electronic contracts, but from a more global perspective. In his article The Proposed UNCITRAL Convention on Electronic Contracts, John Gregory provides an insider's view on the proposed UNCITRAL Convention on Electronic Contracts. This article contains a wealth of information about how this convention is taking shape and how it may affect companies around the globe.

Jamie Clark takes a slightly different approach to the issue of electronic contracts and examines how the incorporation of particular standards into a contract may have unintended consequences. As standards bodies continue to shape the landscape of electronic commerce, the advice in this article will prove to have enduring value.

Rounding out the electronic contracting topic, David Whitaker addresses one of the challenges to creating and selling electronic mortgages. In his article, he describes how a centralized registry might be used to create transferable records.

We hope you find these articles useful in your daily practice. If you would like to join our Committee, you will find a description of our activities at our Web site at www.abanet.org/buslaw/cyber/.

* Michael McGuire is a Managing Director and the Chief Counsel for Information Technology and eCommerce at GMAC Residential Funding Corporation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. McGuire is a Co-Chair of the Subcommittee on Programs and Publications for the Cyberspace Law Committee of the Business Law Section.

(1.) Christina L. Kunz, et al., Click Through Agreements: Strategies for Avoiding Disputes on the Validity of Assent, 57 Bus. LAW. 401 (2001).