In space no one can hear you scream . . . As we discovered in the film “Alien”, in space no one can hear you scream. It is a thought that must pass through the minds of any business caught in a trade over the Internet (“Net”) that goes wrong. Much the same happens, you can scream and call for help all you want, there is little help in Cyberspace and little chance of enforcing any help. You cannot (yet) put a body into Cyberspace. So if you get caught in some
dodgy deal done over the Net you may feel like putting your trading partner into Cyberspace – and leaving him there – but you will have to find a way around the problem. The problem is that in Cyberspace “Identities” are capable of being hidden or disguised. What you see may not be what you get. This can be useful to some people when it comes to payment but the lack of secure 30
identification over the Net is a recognised problem. What is not so well known to the business world at large is what the service providers, those who own the right to use submarine cables and other fibre-optic networks, are doing about it in order to protect their clients. The world moves on and it will be only a matter of time before we see such service providers dragged into court for a failure of due diligence towards their clients. The golden rule of trading is “know who you are dealing with”. A wise Trader does not overlook frequent credit checks on his trading partner. A wise Trader knows his counterpart and his financial standing and is careful to play (trade) in a known backyard. That is the trade is linked to a known jurisdiction where the obligations under the contract can be easily enforced should one party fail to meet its obligations and no settlement is reached. English law is readily accepted by all manner of Traders. A known partner and careful attention to detail is required. Care to these details builds confidence in the International arena. Your bank and Underwriter expect this of you. Indeed lawyers may now argue that a