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Quote:The Web and artificial intelligence have brought about some surreal, science fiction like questions. The most recent mind-bending concept is whether or not robots can enter into contracts – that is, is a Web crawler implicitly entering a contract posted on a website announcing copyright conditions?...

A court battle in Colorado, however, focuses on claims brought by Suzanne Shell against the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine...

Shell sued the company for conversion, civil theft, breach of contract, and violations of the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act (COCCA).

As might be guessed, most of these claims were dismissed. But the breach of contract claim is still under consideration, awaiting more information. The question that will be decided, ultimately, is whether a web crawler that is not blocked by a website can legally be bound by a contract posted on the site...

Quote: Computers can enter into contracts on behalf of people. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) says that a "contract may be formed by the interaction of electronic agents of the parties, even if no individual was aware of or reviewed the electronic agents' actions or the resulting terms and agreements."

This presumes a prior agreement to do business electronically.

So what constitutes such an agreement?...