From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 06:25:42 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Re: Legality of faxed signatures.
Message-ID: <199801162211.OAA14165@proxy3.ba.best.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



    --
Thanks, though this sounds like a silly judgment.

It looks to me as if the great majority of judges and 
lawyers, and hence presumably the great majority of CEOs, are 
blissfully unaware that one can do anything with a fax other 
than scan it in from paper and ink at one end, while it is 
printed out on paper and ink at the other end.

In actual fact a very large proportion of faxes never see 
paper and ink at either end, creating endless opportunities 
for manipulation.

This is a big problem for me, because I want to scare
businessmen into using digital signatures.  

    --digsig
         James A. Donald
     6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG
     E05oBvvh8W9NDUWZgPx6YirXgrcL6+CEkbWuhVNo
     4MQrt6D7Hjqw8OzIX9J2wbPBc7D77B+PochPDi4KZ


At 02:35 PM 1/16/98 -0500, Robert A. Costner wrote:
>At 10:07 AM 1/16/98 -0800, James A. Donald wrote:
>>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.
>
>In Georgia, the state appeals court declared that faxes are "beeps and
>chirps" and therefore not writings.  As a fax is not a writing, it cannot
>have a signature.  Therefore the signature cannot be valid.  This was in a
>case that involved a required notice to arrive by a certain time.
>
>Traditionally, on a writing anything is a signature including an 'X', spit,
>and the words "Mickey Mouse".
>
>
>  -- 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
>
>
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of 
the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, 
not from the arbitrary power of the state.

http://www.jim.com/jamesd/