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28 N. Ky. L. Rev. 810 (2001)
Online Dispute Resolution: Some Lessons from the E-Commerce Revolution

handle is hein.journals/nkenlr28 and id is 820 raw text is: ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION: SOME LESSONS FROM THE E-COMMERCE REVOLUTION' by Ethan Katsh' The change from atoms to bits is irrevocable and unstoppable.3 Is this like 1947 in the television business (meaning another six years before a mass market emerges)? Or are we in a year like 1953, on the verge of changing the nation? Or is it like 1971 in the cable business or - a horrible thought - 1985 in a business known as videotext, a precursor to the digital information business that sucked up hundreds of millions of dollars from a galaxy of major media companies before evaporating.4 Consider the online auction site eBay. In March 1999, 1.7 million items were offered for sale there.' A year later, in March 2000, the number of items for sale at eBay had increased to 4.1 million.' By the end of 2000, there were more than 5 million items for sale, and it is likely that when you read this, the number will be even higher.7 With so many items offered for sale, the number of transactions each week is in the millions,8 and almost all of these transactions occur between strangers. EBay provides the place and the means for a huge amount of commercial activity to take place, but eBay itself assumes no responsibility for any problems that might arise between buyer and seller. Is it any surprise that disputes occur in such an environment? Or consider domain names, the word or phrase that comes between the www and the .com in a World Wide Web address. During 2000, more than 2,000 complaints were filed against the owners of domain names by companies claiming that their trademarks were being infringed.9 Before the Internet, there were no domain names and, of course, no disputes over domain names. As recently as 1997, there were fewer than 2 million domain names.'0 There are Copyright 2001 Ethan Katsh <katsh@legal.umass.edu/dispute>. Adapted from a speech given at Salmon P. Chase College of Law Symposium on Cyberlaw, Feb. 3, 2001. A more complete discussion of the issues raised in this article can be found in E. KATSH & J. RIFKIN, ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (2001). 2 Professor of Legal Studies and Director of the Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst <http://www.umass.edu/dispute>. 3 NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE, BEING DIGITAL 4 (1995). 4 Michael Wolff, Bum Rate 17 (1998). 3 See eBay Web site (visited Mar. 10, 1999) <http://www.ebay.com>. 6 See eBay Web site (visited Mar. 10, 2000) <http://www.ebay.com>. 7 See chart (visited Mar. 25,2001) <http://homestead.juno.com/johnrwong/files/ebay0lQl.jpg>. 8 See EBAY, 1999 ANNUAL REPORT (2000). See also Company Overview (visited Mar. 25, 2001) <http://pages.ebay.com/community/aboutebay/overview/index.html>. 9 See Statistical Summary of Proceedings Under Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (last modified Mar. 23, 2001) <http://www.icann.org/udrp/proceedings-stat.htm>. 10 See Cheryl Regan, History in the Making - Milestones (visited Mar. 23, 2001) <http://www.rs-

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