Ireland’s President has signed the country’s electronic commerce and digital signature act - with a pen…President Mary McAleese placed her digital signature on the bill in a ceremony earlier this week - but only after signing the e-commerce legislation in ink: government representatives said they wanted the legislation to be watertight.  Unlike the UK’s RIP Bill (and no, we’re not going to stop banging on about it), the Irish e-commerce legislation offers strong, explicit protection to users of encryption and forbids law enforcement from demanding that users hand over their encryption keys. The legislation also defines the term ‘electronic’ more broadly for electronic signatures than the U.S. bill, including biometric and photonic (light-generated) forms of creating and guaranteeing the authenticity of a signature - even though they don’t exist yet. You get the feeling that a true geek - probably someone at Baltimore Technologies - has been involved in the drafting of this bill! The act also goes beyond the U.S. legislation in providing a framework for the establishment of a network of certification service providers - the bodies that will provide and guarantee the ‘digital certificates’ that are used with signatures to prove the identity of the signer. ‘This bill goes a long way towards solving the regulatory issues for using digital signatures,’ said Baltimore Technologies CEO Fran Rooney, who was indeed present at the signing. Ireland’s growing number of certification service providers include the national post office and the Irish chambers of commerce. From September, Irish citizens will be able to use digital signatures to file their tax returns online.  The legislation certainly establishes Ireland as a savvy net operator. ‘It sends a powerful message about how a small state can compete well in a digital world,’ said Niall O’Donnchu, spokesman for the Irish Department of Public Enterprise, which sponsored the e-commerce legislation. We’ll continue to look to the U.S. as a leader in e-commerce, but I think the U.S. will look at us as well as an example of how e-commerce creates new opportunities.’ As for UK Government, they should really be hanging their heads in shame as they watch Ireland establishing itself as a major geographic e-portal. Jack Straw’s RIP bill, currently being slated in the House of Lords, means that least two UK ISPs are considering moving over to Ireland at the time of going to press.