The genesis of this book lies in the author's experience in teaching computer law to students. Many of the ideas expressed here have been developed in discussion and team teaching with my colleagues of the Information Technology Law Unit, Dr Ian Walden, Lars Davies, Christopher Millard, John Angel, Laura Edgar, Gavin Sutter, Julia Hörnle and Anne Flanagan. Their contributions have been made over a period of years, and cannot now be separately identified. However, I am conscious that much of what is of value in this book is attributable to their own work, and gratefully acknowledge their otherwise uncredited efforts. Of course, all errors and misunderstandings remain my own responsibility. I also take this opportunity to acknowledge the assistance of Mark Lewis, whose assistance in my practice work in the Internet law field has been invaluable and who was kind enough to read and comment on parts of the first edition.

Finally, mention must be made of the collective contribution of the hundreds of students who have painstakingly listened to my lectures on the topics considered in the book and have challenged and refined my thinking. In particular I must thank those of the 1999/2000 University of London LLM cohort who provided research assistance for the first edition on specific topics (Roux de Villiers and Sajan Poovayya) and Mr Juan Avellan, PhD researcher at the Information Technology Law Unit for information on electronic signatures and identity certification.