[geeks] Three heads

[David Cantrell]

On Wed, Aug 08, 2001 at 12:46:51AM -0400, joshua d boyd wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 07, 2001 at 11:22:49PM +0100, David Cantrell wrote:
> > A signature on a piece of paper is not necessary to make a contract.
> > Contracts can be verbal, for example.  The difficulty comes when you
> > try to prove in court that the contract ever existed.
> 
> We have verbal contracts here to.  I believe that the weight of proof
> falls to the plaintif ...
> 
> What is the UK definition of a digital signature?  Normally, I believe it
> is the defendentss job (in the US at least) to prove that a pen and paper
> signature is false.  Is the UK the same way?

I believe so.

>                                               If so, does the same apply
> to digital signatures made using just an email address and password over
> an unencrypted connection?

I haven't read up on the details, but I can tell you that two companies I
have dealt with have been happy to accept PGP-signed documents from me
instead of bits of paper.  In one case it was an employment contract (not
my current job) and in the other, an NDA.

Clearly anyone who transmits the passphrase for their private key
in-the-clear deserves pain.  Consider having to prove the invalidity of
a signature to be their punishment for the crime of gross stupidity :-)

-- 
David Cantrell | david at cantrell.org.uk | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

Do not be afraid of cooking, as your ingredients will know and misbehave
   -- Fergus Henderson