The claims establish the legal bounds of a patent, however, they must be read in light of what is disclosed in the specifications. The enforceable scope of this patent is fairly limited.
You would think so, but in practice, that's not really what happens. NCR, for example, successfully settled with many companies "infringing" on their ancient patents with their ecommerce sites. The patents predated ecommerce, and made reference to things like microfiche.
