[2055] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Legality of faxed signatures.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ted Lemon)
Fri Jan 16 18:24:01 1998
To: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
cc: "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <froomkin@law.miami.edu>,
cryptography@c2.net
In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 16 Jan 1998 12:56:35 PST."
<199801162056.MAA22646@proxy3.ba.best.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 14:57:41 -0800
From: Ted Lemon <mellon@hoffman.vix.com>
> 2. Most of the time, people do not follow up with physical
> documents, indeed the physical documents often do not exist.
In my case, my SO and I were required at close of escrow on our house
to sign a paper affirming that our signatures on FAXes that we'd
exchanged with the owner during the negotiation process were valid. I
suspect that a bank would do something similar with a digital
signature - banks tend to be very conservative.
For a lesser transaction, like buying a hard drive from Mac
Connection, your signature on a FAX certainly seems no less meaningful
than your verbal consent over the telephone.
_MelloN_
