[mdlug] "Digital" signatures

[Drew]

At 12:11 PM 7/22/07, Dan Pritts wrote:
>as it turns out, there is a US law that states that "electronic
>signatures" (whatever that means) are valid/enforceable.

     I hope that it would mean a PGP signature, which is designed to 
as much as possible
eliminate the possibility that someone other than the key owner 
signed it instead.

     I have to agree with Michael Corral here. The purpose of a 
"signature" as I understand it
is to authenticate the document as being written by, or at least 
authorized by, the person
signing the document. At least in theory, handwriting is supposed to 
be an identifying
characteristic of a person, so that a different individual "signing" 
a given name to a document
should be detectable.

     The trouble with a Jpeg of a signature is that anyone in 
possession of a document with
the target signature, or even a copy, can create such a thing for the 
target signature
himself. Thus it is impossible to prove whether or not someone 
"signed" a document by
the presence of such an image. If the Congress actually passed a law 
allowing a *photograph
of a signature* to count as valid, they really *are* idiots not 
worthy of our obedience or trust.


> > > 2007-07-21, Monsieur A. Kalten a ecrit:
> >
> > > > To include your "John Hancock" you are going to have to create
> > > > an image file, ultimately in eps format, and then work it in to
> > > > that LaTex template using the \includegraphics{} directive.

     Personally I prefer to think that Monsieur Kalten was joking.

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- Drew.