Re: legal question of DSA-based signatures?

["Robert A. Costner" <pooh@efga.org>]

At 12:17 PM 10/3/97 -0400, Anonymous wrote:
>I have before me a statement made by Information Security Corp.:
>
>"The Comptroller General has ruled that, for the purposes of electronic
>commerce, DSA-based digital signatures are as legally binding as hand-
>written signatures."
>
>Can anyone verify this?

My first thought is.. which country are you talking about?

The question is a complex one.  The first question is, what is meant by a
signature?  Courts have rules that valid signatures include and "X",
spitting on the document, and signing "Mickey Mouse" (an actual case).
Even a "/s" at the end of a document would constitute a signature.  

The second question is of more concern.  Signatures are linked in law to
"writings."  In order to consider a digital signature, you must first
define the concept of a "writing."  Is electronic mail or an electronic
document a writing?  Is a facsimile copy a writing?  Recently, a US based
state level supreme court ruled that faxes were not writings, but rather
were "beeps and chirps".  Since faxes are not writings, a faxed signature
was ruled to not be a valid signature anywhere within the state.

This is a problem that digital signature law must consider.  How to make an
electronic document a writing.  Currently states are doing so by passing
laws that explicitly define electronic documents as writings.


  -- Robert Costner                  Phone: (770) 512-8746
     Electronic Frontiers Georgia    mailto:pooh@efga.org  
     http://www.efga.org/            run PGP 5.0 for my public key