From: "Robert A. Costner" <pooh@efga.org>
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 04:04:04 +0800
To: cypherpunks@ssz.com
Subject: Re: Legality of faxed signatures.
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19980116145928.0339e060@mail.atl.bellsouth.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



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