signing a contract and then emailing the scan as an attachment
 

does this make it legal?

how about if you never even print out the contract, just put it in Photoshop and sign your signature using a mouse and then email the pdf?

or does a signature have to be using a real pen and ink on real paper to be valid?

lots of places are accepting electronic signatures as legally binding.

so it is cool to just take a contract someone emailed to you to sign, stick it in photoshop, scribble my signature with the mouse, and email it back? rather than go through the hassle of printing it out, signing it with a pen, heading down to the local fedex store and paying a dollar to fax the hardcopy to them.... seems like it makes just as much sense just to do the whole thing digitally, even though my mouse written signature looks pretty rough compared to a pen

They might not accept it.
If they want to be able to do digital signatures, they would be using www.docusign.com or www.echosign.com

:1orglaugh Putin doesn't have any authoritah here

ok, but realistically there isn't logically a lot of difference between faxing and emailing an attachment, in both cases it is digitized information being transmitted

would a company state that they want a fax but not an email just because it looks more legit?

It's a signed, legit contract if sent via email. The Photoshop part, no clue.

I just print out the last page, sign, scan and email.

programs like pdfpenpro on the mac allow you to sign them electronically.

http://www.smilesoftware.com/PDFpen/ is your friend

I've had electronic contracts enforced by the courts in the US, especially if there is evidence that the document was regarded as "in force".

If Obama use a autopen to sign the Patriot act extension.....

Use a pen tablet, sign it digitally, send it.

confirmation by email is already legally binding

This is true.

So yea. All of the above. I take signed contracts like this every day.

it's country to country proabbly

Its now law that e-signatures are just as binding as a normal signature.

See "Electronic Signatures in global and national commerce act aka ESIGN Act

exactly & you can buy a printer with a scanner for less than $100 bucks.