GLOSSARY

ACH: See Automated Clearing House

Active Server Pages (ASP): Web pages that include "scripts" or small programs that are processed before a server sends the page to the browser that requested it. For example, an ASP may combine data from a database with static Web page content to create a customized page "on the fly" to display to the end user that requested the data. Assignment 3

ActiveX: a group of programming tools and technologies developed by Microsoft. Programs written for the ActiveX environment can perform functions similar to those of Java Applets. Assignments 10, 11

American National Standards Institute (ANSI): a private, non-profit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. ANSI the United States representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). See www.ansi.org. Assignments 16, 37

API: See Application Programming Interface

Applet: a little "application" or small computer program that runs within another application, for example, in the browser application of a visitor to a Web site. Introduction, Assignments 3, 10, 11

Application Programming Interface (API): a set of tools for building software applications that creates an interface between different programs or between a program and an operating system. Using APIs permits programmers to access information or functions provided by other programs or an operating system, thus streamlining the development and operation of the program making the requests of the other software programs. Assignment 26

Application Service Provider (ASP): a business that manages and distributes software and network services to its customers. Important because the software typically resides on the server of the ASP instead of the computers of the ASP's customers. Assignments 3, 16, 21

Archival Storage Media: digital storage media used to create and preserve highly reliable, secure copies of records that must be permanently stored. Assignment 5

ASP: See Active Server Pages or Application Service Provider

Asymmetric Cryptography: cryptography that uses two different but related "keys" or secret numbers. One is a "public key," which can be widely shared without compromising the security of the encryption, and the other is a "private key" that must be kept secret and under the control of a single individual or entity in order to avoid compromising the security of the encryption. Assignment 15

Authentication System: a system for confirming the accuracy or validity of something that is accessed by means of a computer network, most commonly the identity of an individual using a remote computer to communicate online. Assignments 4, 15, 16, 29

Automated Clearing House (ACH): a financial services organization that provides secure electronic funds transfer services within the United States. Common types of ACH transactions include direct deposit of payroll and direct debit of regular monthly bills such as mortgage payments. Many regional ACHs work together to provide a nationwide electronic funds transfer system under the supervision of the National Automated Clearing House Assocation (NACHA). See www.nacha.org. Assignments 17, 28

B2B: See Business-to-Business

B2C: See Business-to-Consumer

Backup System: permits electronic records to be copied so that they can be preserved in the event of equipment failure or other problem that makes the primary copies of the records unavailable. For backup systems to be useful, records must be copied to a backup system on a regular basis, such as daily or weekly. Assignment 5

Bandwidth: the term derives from "width of a band of electromagnetic frequencies," and is commonly used to describe the speed at which data can flow through a network. For example, a modem on a personal computer connected to conventional phone line may have a "bandwidth" of 28.8K (28,800) bits per second of data, which would be half the bandwidth of a modem that could send and receive 57.6K bits per second of data. Assignments 3, 17, 22

Bill of Lading: a document of title issued by a party in the business of transporting goods. Assignment 19

BOLERO: project designed to replace paper bills of lading with an electronic equivalent. BOLERO is sponsored by SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, an international electronic funds transfer service provider) and TT Club (Through Transport Club, a mutual insurance service for shippers). See www.bolero.net. Assignment 19

Bit: a measure of data stored within a computer, derived from "binary digit." A bit has a single binary value which can be either "1" or "0" and is the smallest unit of information used by computers.

Biztalk: a registered trademark of Microsoft; the name of a proprietary standard for XML being developed and promoted by Microsoft. See www.biztalk.org; www.ebxml.org. Assignment 17

Bot: short for "robot" or machine that labors in the place of a human being; a computer program that acts on behalf of a human. The most commonly used bots are those used by search engines and others to search the Internet, copy relevant information and transmit copies back to the bot's source. The term robot first appears in Karel Capek's 1921 play Rossum's Universal Robots; he coined the term from the Czech "robota" meaning compulsory labor. Assignment 6

Brick and Mortar: a business that has a material world existence but not an online existence. Before the advent of networked computer systems and low cost telecommunications, virtually all businesses were "brick and mortar" businesses. Assignments 3, 6, 18, 20, 21, 24

Bricks and Clicks: a business that has both a material world "brick and mortar" existence and an online existence.

Brochureware: Web content based on the content a paper brochure that has not been redesigned to take advantage of the new possibilities Internet communications offer. Assignment 16

Business Process Reengineering: the analysis and design of work processes and information flows within an organization aimed at improving the efficiency of the organization.

Business to Business (B2B): an Internet commerce model based on transactions between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers (B2C). B2B commerce may include but is not limited to the traditional concept of "wholesale" (sale of goods in large quantities from one merchant to another that will resell them), which can be contrasted with "retail" (sale of goods or services in small quantities directly to the ultimate consumer). B2B commerce includes other types of transactions, such as procurement of raw materials for production, or "maintenance, repair and operations" (MRO") requirements. Assignments 16 - 19

Business to Consumer (B2C): an Internet commerce model based on transactions between a business and a consumer. B2C transactions are normally a "retail" transaction (the sale of goods or services in small quantities directly to the ultimate consumer). Assignments 15, 17, 29

Byte: a measure of data stored within a computer, derived from "binary term." A byte is equal to 8 bits and is a unit of information more commonly used in programming than a bit. Assignment 26

CA: See Certification Authority

CA Root: the CA at the pinnacle of a CA hierarchy within a PKI. A CA "certifies" a digital signature by signing a certificate containing a public key and information about the key; a party wishing to rely on that certificate needs to be able to validate the signature of the CA. The CA therefore includes a digital signature certificate to permit the relying party to validate its signature, but then the relying party needs to be able to validate the signature of whoever certified the CA's signature. The "root" CA is the CA for which no further validation is possible within a PKI. Assignment 15

CERT: a project once known as the "Computer Emergency Response Team" sponsored by the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. The current name of this project is the CERT Coordination Center, and CERT is no longer an acronym. See www.cert.org. Assignment 4

Certificate Policy: a document describing the rules that apply to the members of a community participating in a PKI. A certificate policy may include rules applicable to different transaction types or communication procedures and may have a much wider scope than a certificate practice statement. The term "certificate policy" was originally defined by the IETF RFC 2527. Assignment 15

Certification Authority (CA): A trusted third-party organization within a PKI that issues digital certificates used to create digital signatures and public-private key pairs. Assignment 15

Certification Practice Statement: a document describing the practices of a certificate authority in issuing and validating certificates and maintain a PKI. Unlike a certificate policy, a certificate practice statement focuses more narrowly on computer security issues related to managing the use of certificates. The term "certification practice statement" was originally defined by the IETF RFC 2527. Assignment 15

Certificate Revocation List (CRL): as part of its responsibilities in managing a PKI, the CA will publish a list of all certificates that have been revoked. Once a certificate has been revoked, then no one should rely on the contents of that certificate, for example, to associate a particular individual with a digital signature that can be validated using the public key in the revoked certificate. Assignment 15

CGI: See Common Gateway Interface

Cipher: a method of transforming text to disguise its meaning. The term derives from the Arabic "sifr," meaning empty or zero. Assignment 15

Ciphertext: as opposed to plaintext, ciphertext is transformed or encoded text. Until is has been decoded, ciphertext is unreadable. Assignment 15

Circuit Switching: a network technology that requires a complete circuit to be maintained in order for communications to take place. Circuit switching consumes more network resources than packet switching because the sender and the recipient must maintain a single, dedicated connection in order for communication to take place. Circuit switching produces much higher quality of service than packet switching, and so is used for voice telephone services. Although it is possible to make telephone calls using packet-switching technology, the result is poor sound quality, delays, and interruptions in communications as packets of data are reassembled for the listener. Introduction

Clickstream Data: information collected by an Internet commerce site about what content on its Web site visitors viewed, when it was viewed; how long it was viewed; whether a visitor is a new or repeat visitor; and the site that referred the visitor to the site collecting the data. Introduction, Assignments 10, 11

Clickwrap Terms: standard form contract terms presented to a visitor to an Internet commerce site to which the visitor manifests assent by "clicking" with a mouse on a graphical user interface. Clickwrap is derived from "shrinkwrap," a term that described the plastic wrapper placed around boxes of software distributed through bricks-and-mortar retail outlets; once a purchaser broke the "shrinkwrap," the purchaser was supposed to be bound by the terms of the software license contained within the box. Introduction, Assignments 11, 13, 17

Closed PKI: a PKI in which the universe of all possible participants can be identified and access to the PKI can be limited to those participants. Assignment 15

Commercial off the Shelf (COTS): ready-made products that can be easily obtained; the term is derived from US military procurement systems. COTS software is software that provides electronic-commerce functions at a reasonable price but with limited customization. Assignment 3

Common Gateway Interface (CGI): a method of passing information back and forth between an Internet site its visitors; it is a "common" gateway interface because it can work with many different Web programming languages and applications. CGI is part of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that defines the World Wide Web. Assignment 3

Compiler: a program that converts statements written by human programmers in a specific programming language ("source code") into a form of software that is machine-readable ("object code"). Assignments 23, 26

Computer Database: a large collection of information organized in such a form that it can be readily stored and retrieved using a computer. Assignment 8

Computer Network: a system of computers connected by communication lines and common network protocols to permit the sharing of data. Passim, especially introduction

CONTU: See National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works

Cookie: a text file stored on the hard drive of a visitor to a Web site that permits the Web site to recognize the visitor on a subsequent visit to the site; in some cases a cookie might also be used to identify the Web sites that the end user has visited recently. Introduction, Assignments 3, 5, 9-12, 18

Cookie-Cutter Software: software that will restrict the types of cookies a user's system will accept

COTS: See Commercial Off the Shelf

Cracker: an individual who uses his or her computer expertise maliciously to break into other people's computer systems. Assignment 4

Crawling: accessing a site by software robot or spider, normally in order to identify and copy information that is then transmitted back to party that launched the spider. Assignment 6

Credit Header Information: information such as an individual's name, address, previous addresses, telephone number, and social security number that is included in the "header" section of a credit report. Credit header information is not protected by the Fair Credit Reporting Act in the same way that credit information included in a credit report is. Assignment 8

CRL: See Certification Revocation List

Cross-certification: The issuance by one CA of a certificate to another CA for use in the second CA's PKI; cross-certification permits digital signature certificates issued for use within one PKI to be used in a second PKI. The term "cross certification" was originally defined by the IETF RFC 2527. Assignment 15

Cryptography: the process of encoding and decoding messages whose meanings have been hidden. Assignments 4, 15

Cryptosystem: a process that encrypts and decrypts text. Assignment 15

Cybersmear: an unsubstantiated charge or accusation made on the Internet

Cybersquatting: bad faith, abusive registration and use of the distinctive trademarks of others as Internet domain names, with the intent to profit from the goodwill associated with those trademarks. Assignment 2

Database: a collection of data that is organized so that its contents can easily be accessed, managed and updated. Assignments 6, 24

Data Mining: the analysis of data for relationships that have not previously been discovered. Introduction, Assignments 10, 24

Data Warehouse: a specialized database that is used to spot emerging market trends and relationships in customer data that would not otherwise be apparent to managers. Introduction, Assignments 3, 10, 11

Decryption: the process of converting a coded message into intelligible form. Assignments 15, 32

Deep Links: hyperlinks to a page deeper within a Web site than its main page or index page. Assignment 7

Deliverables: the items, usually intangible, to be delivered within the context of a business project; commonly used to describe the subject matter of a software development contract. Assignment 3

Denial-of-Service Attack: attack on a networked information system that deprives authorized users of access by forcing system resources to be allocated to responding to the attack. Assignment 4

Description Meta Tag: a meta tag that identifies a description of the site that can be displayed by a search engine written in a manner that will inform potential visitors of the character of the site. Assignment 1

Digital Signature: an electronic signature created using asymmetric cryptography. Assignments 4, 15, 16, 19, 37

DNS: domain name system. Assignments 1, 4

Download: transmission of information from one computer system to another, usually smaller one

Dumpster Diving: sorting through trash to find passwords or other sensitive information. Assignment 4

Dutch Auction: a way of selling multiple, identical items in an auction. Items are sold to the highest bidders at the lowest successful bid price. For example, if a seller offered 3 gnomes for sale and there were 4 bidders that bid $1, $2, $3 and $4 respectively, then the gnomes would be sold to the 3 highest bidders for $2 each. Assignment 18

ebXML: an open, public XML standard setting effort sponsored by UN/CEFACT (United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business) and OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards). See www.ebxml.org; cf. www.biztalk.org. Assignment 17

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): a standard format for exchanging business data. Introduction, Assignments 4, 5, 16, 17

Electronic Signature: a general term for any electronic equivalent of a manual signature; cf. digital signature. Assignments 5, 14, 15, 19, 32, 37

Encryption: the process of encoding a message so that its contents become unintelligible to any but the intended recipient. Introduction, Assignments 4, 5, 15, 16, 32

Encryption Algorithm: the procedure used to encrypt or decrypt a message; modern encryption algorithms are executed by computer systems. Assignment 15

End-user: the ultimate user of a finished product. Assignments 10, 17, 21, 24, 26

E-SIGN: Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, Pub. L. No. 106-229, 114 Stat. 464 (2000) (codified at 15 U.S.C. §§ 7001-7031). Assignments 5, 14, 15, 16, 28, 37, 39

eXtensible Markup Language (XML): a system used to "mark up" content so that the structure and meaning of the content can be interpreted by machine processes. XML is a variation of HTML, the markup language used to format World Wide Web content so that it can be displayed in the end user's browser software. Like HTML, XML requires "tags" to be inserted in documents to permit different kinds of content to be distinguished. Unlike HTML, XML is not limited to document formatting, but is "extensible" so can be expanded to permit many different kinds of information to be formatted in a way that can be interpreted by software programs. XML is also a variation of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), a markup language developed in the 1980s to define document structures. Assignments 15, 16, 17

Fair Use: A doctrine in copyright law that permits certain uses of copyrightable materials even though the uses infringe the exclusive rights that copyright law grants to authors. Less commonly, an analogous and still-nascent doctrine in trademark law. Assignments 1, 2, 22, 42.

Feature Creep: a problem that arises once a supplier and its client have agreed on a project specification, when the client modifies the project specification to add new features not originally envisaged. Feature creep commonly results in delay, additional expense, or even the failure of a project. Assignment 3

FEDI: See Financial EDI

File Transfer Protocol (FTP): a communications protocol that permits files to be shared over the Internet. Other widely used Internet communications protocols include HTTP and SMTP. Introduction

Finance Lease: a transaction formally structured as a lease, but better characterized as a financing transaction designed to permit the lessee to acquire the leased asset over time; to be distinguished from a "true" lease, which grants temporary possession of a piece of personal property in return for lease payments to the lessor.

Financial EDI (FEDI): the electronic transfer of payments together with payment-related information, all in a machine-readable format. Assignments 16, 17.

Firewall: a software program installed at the gateway to a computer network that restricts communications to and from the computer network, permitting only those communications that are consistent with the security policies of the network administrator. Assignments 4, 6

First-Sale Doctrine (also known as the rule of exhaustion): a copyright doctrine limiting the ability of the copyright owner to control the behavior of a purchaser of copyrighted materials after the sale is completed. Assignments 6, 22, 24, 34

Five-Nines Uptime: a standard used in network services agreements to require that services will be available 99.999% of the time; the concept of "five nines" is widely discussed in marketing but rarely achieved in practice. Assignment 3

Frames: a method of presenting Web content from multiple sources. A Web page that contains frames provides links to other content in order to create a new combination of materials for the visitor to the framing site. Visitors to the framing site may not be aware that content being presented as an integrated whole is actually taken from disparate sources. Because early versions of Internet browser software cannot display content containing frames, Web site developers may create two different versions of a single site - one that makes use of frames and one that does not. Assignments 7, 8

FTP: See File Transfer Protocol

Functional Acknowledgment: a type of message sent by an EDI system, essentially an electronic acknowledgment of receipt of a message that does not contain a response to the contents of the message. Functional acknowledgements permit parties using EDI to verify that a message has been received. Assignment 16

Grantback Provision: a provision in a patent license that requires the licensee to grant back to the licensor patented improvements in the licensee's original technology; grantback provisions have generally been looked upon with hostility by United States antitrust enforcement agencies, especially where the grantback is exclusive. Assignment 25

Graphical User Interface (GUI) (pronounced "gooey"): a human-computer interface that makes use of graphics rather than exclusively text; a World Wide Web page viewed in a browser is one example of a GUI. Assignments 16, 40

Hacker: originally, a clever programmer; the original meaning has been obscured by its use by journalists and others who are not themselves programmers as synonymous with "cracker."

Hash Function: a software program that turns one string of characters into another, shorter string of characters that represent the original string. Assignment 15

History File: a detailed list of Web sites recently visited stored in by browser software. The history makes it easy for the end-user to access sites again; the contents of the history file can be viewed by anyone with access to the browser. Assignment 10

Horizontal Exchange: an online marketplace made up of direct competitors. Assignment 17

HTML: See Hypertext Markup Language

HTTP: See Hypertext Transfer Protocol

Hyperlink: an electronic link providing direct access from one electronic resource to another. The term is a contraction of "hypertext link." The use of hyperlinks is what makes the World Wide Web a web.

Hypertext: text that is organized by connected associations (hyperlinks) that do not require the use of an index. If electronic recourses other than text (such as graphics, audio, or video) are linked, the correct term is "hypermedia." The term seems to have been derived from "hyperspace," a science fiction term for space with more than three dimensions, because of the much more dynamic and intuitive manner in which information can be stored and retrieved using hyperlinks. Assignments 1, 13, 16, 26

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): a set of codes or "tags" that are used to "mark up" World Wide Web content to be displayed using a browser. HTML tags are generally limited to formatting, which limits their use in electronic-commerce applications. By contrast, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) tags permit files to be marked based on the meaning of the terms, e.g., permitting price and quantity terms in contracts to be identified without human intervention. Assignments 1, 16

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): an Internet communications protocol that permits files including text, graphics, sound, or video to be exchanged over the World Wide Web. Other widely used Internet communications protocols include FTP and SMTP. Introduction

IANA: See Internet Assigned Number Authority

IAP: See Internet Access Provider

ICANN: See Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

ICP: See Internet Content Provider

Identity Manager: a feature of Microsoft Outlook Express that permits end users to create and maintain separate online identities with different security preferences or other attributes. Assignment 10

Identity Scrubber: software that allows individuals to remain anonymous while accessing Internet sites; Zero-Knowledge is a leading provider of such software. See www.zeroknowledge.com. Assignment 10

Identity Theft: misappropriation of someone's personal information in order to defraud creditors and others by assuming the identity of that person. Assignments 8, 29

IETF: See Internet Engineering Task Force

Illusory Privacy Policy: a misleading document labeled "privacy policy" that does not provide any privacy protection to the individuals covered by it. For example, a privacy policy stating "We will make the fullest possible use of your personal information in order to serve you better" would be an illusory privacy policy.

Information Audit: a methodical examination or review by an organization of its policies governing the collection of information, the types of information it actually collects, and the uses to which that information is put. Assignment 11

Interface: point at which two independent systems meet and interact with each other

International Organization for Standardization (ISO): a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 140 countries. ISO is a non-governmental organization established to promote the development of open, voluntary standards in many fields. For example, if programmers had used the ISO 8601 standard for expressing dates (dd/mm/yyyy), Y2K problems with computer software could have been avoided. The name "ISO" is not an acronym but derives from the Greek prefix "iso-" meaning "equal" or "standard." The name ISO was adopted to avoid the creation of acronyms that would be different in different languages around the world. See www.iso.ch.

Internet: a network of networks of electronic communication systems and computers that can all share information with each other through the use of the TCP/IP standard.

Internet Access Provider (IAP): see Internet Service Provider (ISP). Assignments 26, 40

Internet Alliance: a trade association and lobbying group established for Internet companies. See www.internetalliance.org.

Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA): organization formerly charged with coordinating the process of assigning "Internet Protocol" (IP) addresses used to identify Internet domains; control of this process was transferred to ICANN in 1999.

Internet Content Provider: a party responsible for the creation or development of Internet content. Assignment 26

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN): a California not-for-profit corporation created in 1998 to take over administration of the domain name system, IP address allocations, and other technical functions essential to the administration of the Internet. See www.icann.org. Assignments 2, 6, 24, 42

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): a voluntary standards-developing organization characterized by its openness and pragmatism. The task force requires two successful implementations before a proposed standard will be officially recognized. For an overview of the functions of the IETF, see IETF RFC 3160, issued August 2001, "The Tao of IETF - A Novice's Guide to the Internet Engineering Task Force." See www.ietf.org. Assignment 4

Internet Network Information Center (InterNIC): InterNIC is a registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The name once referred to a joint venture among Network Solutions, Inc, General Atomics, and AT&T, which was established in 1993 to administer the domain-name system. Network Solutions later took exclusive control over the administration of the domain-name system from the joint venture, but in turn lost its monopoly over registration of .com, .org and .net domain names when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was created in 1998 to take over that function. ICANN now maintains the InterNIC Web site as a source of information about Internet domain name registration services. See www.internic.com

Internet Protocol (IP): a network communications protocol that handles the address part of each data packet. The current version of the IP standard is know as IP version 4 or IPv4 and is contained in IETF RFC 791, written by Jon Postel in 1981. A revised IP standard is in the process of being implemented. That standard is known variously as IP version 6, or IPv6, or IP next generation, or IPng. That standard is contained in IETF RFC 1752, published in 1994. The change from IPv4 to IPv6 is needed because only about 4 billion IP addresses can be created within the framework of IPv4, but IPv6 will permit vastly more IP addresses to be created. {Specifically, it will support 2128 addresses, or 282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456.} Assignments 6, 26, 36, 42

Internet Service Provider (ISP): a party providing a connection between an end user's computer and the Internet

InterNIC: See Internet Network Information Center

IP: Intellectual Property or Internet Protocol

IP address: In Version 4 of the IP protocol (IPv4), an IP address identifies a computer connected to the Internet with a unique 32-bit number made up of twelve digits divided into four groups of numbers separated by decimals - e.g., 121.122.123.124. In Version 6 of the IP protocol (IPv6), an IP address will be a unique 128-bit number. Introduction, Assignments 6, 10, 17

ISO: See International Organization for Standardization

ISP: See Internet Service Provider

Iteration: repetition of a procedure. In programming, iteration refers to a sequence of instructions; each time the computer executes the instructions is an iteration. In software development, iterative development refers to the process of building incrementally on selected elements of a project only after those elements have been tested. This is in contrast to more traditional software-development methods, in which an entire project is mapped out and built before substantial testing takes place. Assignment 16

Java: a programming language developed by Sun Microsystems that permits computer programs to operate in a networked or "distributed" environment. The programming language was originally created to develop software for interactive television and was named "Oak." The name was later changed to Java at a meeting at which many cups of coffee were sitting on the table in front of the developers. Programs written in Java can operate on any computer that is Java-enabled without regard to the operating system the computer runs, a feature known as "portability" that eliminates the need to write separate versions of programs for Microsoft, Apple, or Unix operating systems. Assignments 10, 26

Java Applets: small programs that can be placed on a server as part of a Web site but that actually run on the computers of visitors to the Web site.
Just in Time (JIT) Inventory Control Systems: coordinate the production and delivery of parts so that only what is needed is made available just at the time it is needed; this is in marked contrast to traditional inventory systems, in which large stockpiles of parts are maintained by manufacturers to ensure their availability when and if they are needed. Assignment 16

Key: in cryptography, a long, seemingly random number combined with an encryption algorithm and applied to a plaintext to produce a ciphertext. Assignment 15

Keyword Meta Tag: a meta tag that identifies keywords that might be typed into a search engine; unlike description meta tags, keyword meta tags are not read by potential visitors but are only used by the search engine to gauge the likelihood that a site will contain contents of interest to a searcher. Assignment 1

Killer App: a wildly successful computer software application that produces fundamental changes in the way people use computers. Spreadsheet programs VisiCalc and then Lotus 1-2-3, Internet browsers Mosaic and Netscape Navigator, and the WordPerfect word-processing programs are all examples of "killer apps." Assignments 15, 16

Legacy System: information systems using hardware, software, and data formats that are not the current version of those technologies. Introduction, Assignments 3, 4, 16, 23

Link: short form of "Hyperlink."

Local Registration Agent (LRA): a person or organization authorized to issue digital signature certificates to other persons or organizations already known to the LRA within a PKI. For example, if a company participates in a PKI established by a trade association, the company may designate an employee in its personnel department or information technology department to be the company's LRA and to issue to its employees the digital signature certificates that are necessary for them to participate in the PKI. Assignment 15

Logic Bomb: a virus programmed to perform some destructive or security-compromising act whenever a specified set of conditions are present. Assignment 4

LRA: See Local Registration Agent

Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO): general industrial products such as machine tools or cleaning supplies purchased on a recurring basis in a wide variety of industries. Assignment 17

Media Perils Insurance: insurance available to writers and publishers, covering liability for libel or intellectual property infringement. Assignment 7

Message Digest: a summary of a message; in cryptography, a summary of the electronic record signed using the private key. Message digests are produced using a "hash function," which is an algorithm that can take a message of any length and summarize it as a single number which is unique to that message. A one-way hash function can generate a digest of any message, but the message cannot later be recreated by analyzing the digest and the hash function algorithm. Assignment 15

Meta Tag: an HTML tag that describes the content of the Web site where it is found; meta tags are used by search engines to identify Web sites that may be of interest to searchers and to provide descriptions to searchers of those sites. Assignment 1

Middleware: software that permits two or more existing applications to share data or functions. Assignment 26

Model Electronic Data Interchange Trading Partner Agreement and Commentary (MTPAC): a form contract for use in negotiating and drafting EDI trading-partner agreements; developed by the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association and published at 45 BUS. LAW. 1717 (1990). The published version of the MTPAC was accompanied by a report explaining the function of EDI and the application of existing contract law doctrine to it. ABA Electronic Messaging Services Task Force, The Commercial Use of Electronic Data Interchange-A Report, 45 BUS. LAW. 1645 (1990). Assignment 16

Mousetrapped: unable to exit a site without clicking on a succession of advertisements. Assignment 2

MRO: See Maintenance, Repair, and Operations

MTPAC: See Model Electronic Data Interchange Trading Partner Agreement and Commentary

National Arbitration Forum: an arbitration service made up of lawyers, law professors, and former judges. See www.arb-forum.com. Assignment 2

National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU): created in 1978 by Congress to recommend changes in the Copyright Act to accommodate advances in computer technology; the report that it issued in 1979 outlined many of the issues that arise from the application of traditional copyright concepts to new information technologies. Assignment 22

National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC): federal project that provides a clearinghouse of information for private-sector organizations about current developments in computer security and information about appropriate responses to computer-security incidents (pronounced "Nip-see"). Assignment 4

Network effect: if the value to one person of a product increases as the number of other people also using it increases, then the market for that product exhibits network effects. Introduction, Assignments 17, 24, 25, 26

NIPC: See National Infrastructure Protection Center

OASIS: See Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards

Object Code: a form of software that is machine-readable. Decades ago, programmers wrote machine-readable code, but now object code is produced by running programs written in a form readable by humans ("source code") through a "compiler" to produce object code. While source code can readily be converted into object code, it is usually difficult or impossible to decompile object code back into source code. Assignment 23

OEM: See Original Equipment Manufacturer

Online Privacy Alliance: an information-technology industry trade association and lobbying group that helps to define and advance the interests of United States businesses in the current debate regarding online privacy. See www.privacyalliance.org

Online Privacy Seal Program: voluntary programs that set up minimum privacy standards and provide Web sites that comply with such standards a seal that they can place on their site to demonstrate to visitors that they comply with the program's standards. Assignments 11, 12

Online Service Provider (OSP): see Internet Service Provider (ISP)

Open PKI: a PKI that is open to an unlimited number of possible participants. Assignment 15

Opt-in: a default rule for Internet privacy that would require a organization to first obtain an individual's express permission before direct-marketing materials could be sent to that individual. Privacy advocates opposed to direct marketing prefer opt-in to opt-out as a default rule. Assignments 6, 10, 11, 12

Opt-out: a default rule for Internet privacy that would require an individual to take some affirmative action in order to prevent unsolicited marketing from being sent to that person. Businesses that engage in direct marketing prefer opt-out to opt-in as a default rule. Assignments 6, 9, 10, 11

Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS): an open, public standard developing organization. See www.oasis-open.org. Assignment 17

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM): a company that combines the products of other companies to manufacture products that it markets under its own brand. Assignment 26

OSP: See Online Service Provider or Internet Service Provider (ISP)

Out-link: a hyperlink that permits the viewer to move to another site on the Web. Assignment 7

Outsource: procuring from a source outside a firm a function that previously was performed inside a firm. For example, many small businesses now outsource the preparation of their payroll to a third party vendor, while keeping all other bookkeeping functions in-house, because of the complexity of payroll calculations and the risk of liability for errors. Assignments 3, 16

P3P: See Platform for Privacy Preferences

Packet: a unit of data sent from one computer system to another in a network system based on packet switching. Introduction, Assignments 11, 32

Packet Sniffer: software that monitors and analyzes network traffic. A network administrator may run packet sniffer software to detect bottlenecks or other problems with the network; sniffer software also may be installed and run by someone outside an organization without the knowledge or consent of the network administrator either for illicit purposes or to facilitate government surveillance. Assignment 11

Packet Switching: a network communication system that breaks data to be sent into smaller packets of data, each with a header to identify from where it is coming and to where it is going; the data is numbered before it is sent so that when all the packets are reassembled, they can be put back together in the right order. Packet switching consumes fewer network resources than circuit switching because the sender and the recipient do not need to maintain a single, dedicated connection. Rather, the packets of data may be routed over many different connections before they are reassembled at their destination. Introduction

Peripheral: any part of a computer other than those essential to functioning of the computer itself, such as a printer, a scanner or a network connection. Assignments 2, 5

Permission Marketing: marketing campaigns that are based on individuals "opting-in" or agreeing to participate. Assignments 6, 10, 42

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA): a small hand-held computer that provides information storage and retrieval functions, and that may also be networked. PalmPilot is a famous brand of PDA. Assignments 5, 10, 23, 24, 32, 34, 42

PET: See Privacy Enhancing Technologies

PKI: See Public Key Infrastructure

Plaintext: in cryptography, the text of the message before it has been encrypted or after it has been decrypted. Assignment 15

Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P): an XML standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, which allows end users to set their browsers to remember their privacy preferences; if an end user tried to access a Web site that also uses P3P but that does not respect the end user's privacy preferences, the browser would alert the end user to the lack of adequate privacy protection. Assignment 11

Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET): software or hardware designed to give an individual greater control over the personal information collected from that individual in online environments. Assignment 11

Protocol: a set of rules governing the processing and transmission of data shared among networked computer systems. Assignments 6, 15, 22, 26, 36, 42

Proxy Bidding: the use of another as agent in a bidding process; in online auctions, proxy bidding is performed by software according to guidelines set by the individual bidder. Assignments 18, 42

Proxy Server Software: directs outgoing and incoming data traffic through a centralized portal. Assignment 6

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI): distribute public keys reliably and provide a reliable source of information when the security of a private key has been compromised. Assignment 15

Puffer: See Shill

Pure Play: Internet company that has no offline presence for dealing with its customers. Assignment 3

Relational Database: a database in which the information is organized according to predetermined categories; queries can be made and reports can be generated from the data in the database by taking advantage of the categories used to build it. Introduction, Assignment 10

Remittance Advice Information: An EDI message sent to advise that payment has been sent. Assignment 16

Request for Comments (RFC): a formal document issued by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) that has been reviewed by interested parties. Some RFCs are informational, but others contain technical standards that have been finalized. For example RFC 3160, issued in August 2001, is "The Tao of IETF - A Novice's Guide to the Internet Engineering Task Force," a document that provides an overview of the functions of the IETF. All IETF RFCs are available at www.ietf.org

Reserve price: a price set by the seller at an auction as the minimum price that the seller will accept. Assignment 18

Reverse Auction: an auction in which the buyer sets the highest price that it is willing to pay and then permits various vendors compete as to how far below that price they are willing to bid. Assignment 18

Reverse Engineering: the process of analyzing computer hardware or software for the purposes of understanding and or recreating its design and structure. Assignment 22

RFC: See Request for Comments

Robot Exclusion Header: a message sent to computers programmed to detect whether the use of robots is authorized on a particular site. Assignments 6, 24

Rule of Exhaustion: See First-Sale Doctrine

Safe Harbor: protection from liability based on compliance with specified objective requirements. For example, the Communications Decency Act, 47 USC § 230, protects OSP's from liability for defamatory content posted by another party. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) offers similar protection to OSP's with regard to protection against claims from copyright owners.

Schema: a structured framework; in XML programming, a framework that defines a group of XML tags (pronounced SKEE-ma). Assignment 17

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): a communications security protocol that protects the privacy of communications between an Internet browser and a server. The browser and server first use public key encryption to establish a secure communication channel and then use symmetric key encryption to encrypt all information passed between the browser and server. Assignments 15, 16

Self-regulation: regulation of business entities by their own internal control procedures or by standards articulated by trade association or analogous organizations; an alternative to formal regulation by an agency or through binding contractual obligations. Assignments 7, 8, 11, 12, 15

SGML: See Standard Generalized Markup Language

Sham Bidder: See Shill

Shill: a person who appears to be a disinterested bidder at an auction, but who is actually making bogus bids on behalf of the seller in order to try to induce the other bidders to pay a higher price. Also sham bidder or puffer. Assignment 18

Shopping Bot or ShopBot: a software robot that acts as an agent on behalf of a human shopper in locating the best deal with regard to a particular item to be purchased. Assignments 16, 24.

Shrinkwrap Terms: standard-form contract terms that a software licensor wishes to make binding on the purchaser (licensee) of software, the premise being that the purchaser first sees the terms after it breaks the "shrinkwrap" that seals the box containing the software. Introduction, Assignments 13, 23

Silo: a large storage container; in business process reengineering, silos are created by internal divisions within firms that prevent sharing information and collaboration that would make the firm more efficient. Assignment 17

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP): an Internet communications protocol that permits email messages to be sent and received. Other widely used Internet communications protocols include FTP and HTTP.

Site License: Web-based contract that sets forth the expectations of a Web site operator about the rights and obligations of visitors to the site. Assignments 6, 24

SKU: See Stockkeeping Unit

Smart Card: a plastic card in which a microprocessor chip is embedded; smart cards are "smart" in comparison to plastic cards with magnetic strips, which provide only a limited storage media and no processing capacity on the card itself. Assignments 15, 28, 29, 32

Smart Goods: tangible goods of which software is an essential element. For example, digital cell phones are smart goods, but rotary dial telephones are not. Assignment 34

SMTP: See Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

Sniffer: See Packet Sniffer.

Sniping: shooting at someone from a hidden vantage point; in online auctions, placing a bid so close to the end of the auction that other bidders do not have time to react. Assignment 18

Social Engineering: low-tech attacks that successfully threaten computer security by tricking people into doing something that they should not. Assignment 4

Software Lease: the common name of a transaction for financing the acquisition of software, in which the lender ("lessor") makes a lump-sum payment to the licensor of the software, in return for the licensee's promise of a series of monthly payments to the lessor. Assignment 34

Software Robot: see Bot.

Source Code: statements written by human programmers in a specific programming language that must be converted into machine-readable code ("object code") before a computer can run the program. Assignments 5, 10, 21, 23, 33

Source-Code Escrow: one of a variety of arrangements in which a software developer or licensor deposits a copy of a software program's source code with a third party. The third party agrees to deliver the source code to the sponsor or licensee in specified circumstances such as a failure of the developer or licensor to conform to its obligations to develop, maintain, upgrade, or support the software. Assignments 21, 23

Spam: a registered trademark of Hormel for luncheon meat; in a widely noted skit in the English television comedy Monty Python's Flying Circus, the word Spam is repeated to the point of absurdity in a restaurant menu; hence, by analogy, unsolicited commercial email (UCE) which inundates Internet users to the point of absurdity. Assignments 6, 42

Spamdexing: using meta tags to confuse or mislead search engines. For example, one Web site may copy the meta tags of a competitor into its own Web site content. When a search engine provides a searcher with a link to the spamdexing site, it would appear to the searcher to be identical or nearly identical to the site whose meta tags it had copied.

Spider: a software robot that crawls the World Wide Web gathering information. Search engines commonly use spiders to identify and copy information that is then transmitted back to the search-engine system to be stored in a database and indexed. Assignment 6

Spoliation: the destruction or substantial modification of evidence, or the failure to preserve evidence that is relevant for the proof of an adverse party's case in litigation. Assignment 5

Spoof: to deceive in a good-natured way; creating a false network identity in order to gain unauthorized access or creating a false Web site that takes the place of the real one. Assignments 4, 6, 16, 31

Spyware: a pejorative term that refers to any technology that permits information about an individual to be gathered w/o the knowledge of the individual. Assignment 10

SSL: See Secure Sockets Layer

Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML): a system used to "mark up" content so that the structure and meaning of the content can be interpreted by machine processes. SGML is used by online services such as Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw to mark up legal documents such as judicial opinions so that users of those online services can search by "segments" (which are created by inserting different SGML "tags" into legal documents). HTML and XML are subsets of SGML that have been developed for Internet applications. SGML is an open public standard issued by the ISO.

Stockkeeping Unit (SKU): an inventory control number assigned by an organization for internal bookkeeping purposes (pronounced "Skew"). Assignments 6, 16

Streaming Media: media that can be displayed to the end user while it is still in the process of downloading. Video and audio files must be compressed before they can be sent over the Internet; in the early days of Internet multimedia, an end user first downloaded a file, then launched software that would decompress and play the media after downloading was complete. The advent of streaming media eliminated this two-step process, making it possible for the end user to begin enjoying the media file while it was still being transmitted and decompressed. Assignments 3, 40

Supply Chain: every step in the process of producing and delivering a good or service, beginning with the raw materials and finishing with the retail distribution of the final product. Introduction, Assignments 16, 17

Supply Chain Reengineering: analysis and design of work processes and information flows within a supply chain aimed at improving the efficiency of all the organizations that make up the supply chain. Assignment 16

Symmetric Cryptography: cryptography that uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt the information to be kept secret. Assignment 15

Tag: a generic term for labels applied to electronic content that permits the content to be processed automatically. SGML tags permit segment searching in Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw databases; HTML tags permit the browser to display the content correctly; XML tags can permit software to analyze the meaning of different terms in a legal document.

TCP: See Transmission Control Protocol

TCP/IP: the basic network communication protocol that defines the Internet; it consists of the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol. The TCP/IP communication protocol works in combination with higher-level communication protocols such as HTTP, FTP, or SMTP to make Internet communications work. Introduction

Time bomb: a software virus programmed to execute at a specific date or time. Assignment 4

TLS: See Transport Layer Security

Trademark Dilution: a cause of action in trademark law that does not require proof of consumer confusion, but instead provides liability for a competing use of the mark that reduces the capacity of a famous mark to identify and distinguish a product. Assignments 1, 40

Trade secret: valuable information belonging to a business that derives value from not being generally known or readily ascertainable by third parties

Trading-Partner Agreement: an agreement between two firms using EDI technologies to form electronic contracts that sets out the mutual understandings of the parties with respect to their EDI communications. Assignments 16, 17

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): a network communications protocol that handles breaking up a message into data packets at its point of transmission and then their reassembly at their destination. The TCP standard is contained in IETF RFC 793. Introduction

Transport Layer Security (TLS): a communications-security protocol that protects the privacy of communications between an Internet browser and a server; the successor to the SSL protocol. The TLS protocol is contained in IETF RFC 2246. Assignment 15

Trojan Horse: malicious software code that is hidden within an apparently harmless software program. Assignments 4, 10

Turnkey: a system that is delivered complete and ready to use. Assignment 3

Typosquatting: registering domain names that are intentional misspellings of distinctive or famous names. Assignment 2

UCE: See Unsolicited Commercial Email

UDRP: See Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy

UETA: Uniform Electronic Transactions Act; promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) in 1999 and adopted in 38 states by 2001. See www.nccusl.org.

UN/CEFACT: See United Nations Center for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business

UN/EDIFACT: See United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport

Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure (UDRP): Policy issued by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the resolution of disputes between those registering domain names in the biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, and .org top-level domains and trademark owners that believe the domain names infringe or dilute their trademark. See www.icann.org. Assignments 2, 42

Uniform Resource Locator (URL): the address of a file accessible on the Internet, such as www.acm.org (pronounced "You-Are-Elle" rather than "Earl"). Introduction, Assignments 9, 16

United Nations Center for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT): an organization of the United Nations; participants include member states, intergovernmental organizations, and trade and industry associations that work to promote the growth of cross-border trade using electronic-commerce technologies. See www.unece.org/uncefact. Assignment 17

United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/EDIFACT): a set of rules developed by various working groups of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (whose membership is open to all UN member states, not just European member states) and approved by the United Nations. Assignment 16

Universal Product Code (UPC): a 12-digit number provided by the Uniform Code Council that uniquely identifies a product in commerce. The first part of a UPC number identifies the company manufacturing a product, the second part identifies the product itself. UPC numbers appear in bar code labels that manufacturers place on the packaging of goods. See www.uc-council.org. Assignments 16, 35

Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE): junk email sent to Internet users without permission; also known as "Spam." Assignments 6, 40, 42

UPC: See Universal Product Code

URL: See Uniform Resource Locator

Use Tax: tax levied on residents of a state on goods purchased out-of-state for use within the state. Assignment 20

User Agreement: a standard-form contract posted by a commercial Web site operator that details the Web site operator's interpretation of the rights and obligations of visitors to its Web site. Assignments 6, 14, 18, 30

Value Added Network (VAN): data-network services provided to EDI trading partners that provided enhanced security and reliability. Assignments 10, 16

Value Chain: a variation of "supply chain" that can apply to any vertical market in which the cooperation of a group of firms working together increases the value of a good or service. Value chain is meant to be a broader concept than supply chain. For example, companies that develop software that end users can run on personal computers form part of a value chain with the developer of the personal computer operating system and the manufacturers of the computers. Assignment 16

VAN: See Value Added Network

Vertical Exchange: an online marketplace composed of upstream (input) and downstream (output) producers in the same industry or economic sector. Assignment 17

Virtual Private Network (VPN): a private data network that uses public data networks for communications but maintains privacy by adding encryption and other security features to the communications. Assignments 16, 27

Virus: malicious software code that enters a computer in a disguised form and then causes harm to the computer it has entered. Assignment 4

Web Bugs: a tiny file, often a transparent one-pixel by one-pixel graphic that is placed on a web page or in an email that can aid the sender to monitor the online behavior of the recipient; a variation of "cookie." Assignments 10, 11

Web Linking Agreement: an agreement between Web site operators governing the use of hyperlinks from between the two sites

Web Server: the computer where the content of a Web site resides, or the software that permits the computer to deliver the content in response to requests from Internet end users. Introduction, Assignments 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 17, 20

Wholesaling domain names: the practice of acquiring large numbers of domain names with the intent to profit from reselling them rather than using them to establish Web sites. Assignment 2

Wholesale Exception Clause: A revision to the amazon.com privacy policy pejoratively characterized as creating a wholesale exception to its privacy commitments. Assignment 11

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO): a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for administering various treaties dealing with intellectual-property law issues and for the further harmonization of intellectual property laws around the world. See www.wipo.org. Assignment 2

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): a leading open, public standard-setting organization developing standards for the Internet; founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web. See www.w3c.org. Assignment 11

Worms: malicious software code that harms the host computer by copying itself quickly, absorbing ever more system resources until the host computer crashes. Assignment 4

XML: See eXtensible Markup Language