Abstract
A sale contract is amongst main contracts. It is the master of contracts by which ownership of the thing sold is transferred to the buyer, who consequently become entitled to all powers of an owner: use, utilization, and disposal with. Because of the technological advancement made in information, remote communications, and use of electronic media rather than material media in making contracts, electronic materials used on computers – electronic programs – have appeared in all fields: industry, trade, banking, etc. Sale of these programs may be at the level of individuals and private companies or at the level of state institutions. This involves complications related to contracting, programs required specifications and qualities. Sometimes, after agreeing on specifications and quality, problems arise in implementation in terms of compliance with the agreed upon specifications, having operational defects, or insufficiency of information, etc. Furthermore, entitlement of the program may turn to be belonging to others, and has been stolen or bought from someone who has no entitlement to it. Here, entitlement is revealed after retrieving the program and banning its use by its creator. The problem of this study revolves around identifying electronic programs, their scope, and distinguishing them from others. Furthermore, it is necessary to identify applicable laws and way of identifying the person in the wrong. Significance of the study lies in distinguishing when buying these programs between a layman and a professional, as well as identifying scope of warranty concerning defects, hidden defect warranty, damage warranty, entitlement, and compensations resulting thereof. The methodology adopted in this study is comparative methodology. The study consists of three chapters. Chapter one defines warranties in electronic program sales. Chapter two is devoted for seller’s warranty, while chapter three deals with breach of obligations and related procedures. The study ends with a conclusion containing the most important results and suggestions, the most notable of which was that electronic programs represent classifications protected by copyrights. In addition, electronic programs sale contracts differ from other contracts. All contracts may cause dispute in terms of determining sale conditions and price. There is also the problem of validity of electronic signatures. A special legal relation may be related to an element or more by more than one law, for instance citizenship law, domicile, or place where contracts was made. The most important recommendation is that students should use Islamic jurisprudence books and write regularly in the area of intellectual property. We further recommend Sudanese legislators to devise a special regulation covering sale of electronic programs.