[2051] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Legality of faxed signatures.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steve Bellovin)
Fri Jan 16 14:44:44 1998
To: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
cc: cryptography@c2.net
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 14:19:01 -0500
From: Steve Bellovin <smb@research.att.com>
--
I believe that there is case law or legislation that a faxed
signature is worthless if it is bit for bit identical with
another signature, which of course it usually is these days.
Can anyone with a spot of legal knowledge give me something
impressive sounding to scare people who rely on those
signatures.
I've never heard of this theory. And there's a lot of case law that
would suggest that you're wrong. For a good example, have a look
at opinion B-238449 from the Comptroller General, 19 June 1991 -- they
cite all sorts of precedents for why digital signatures are legal.
What matters is the *intent* behind the signature.
If folks are interested, I'll post the opinion. (I'm going to regret
saying that, I suspect; these days, mailing lists are large enough
that enough folks are interested in *anything*...)
