This is the mail archive of the libc-hacker@sourceware.cygnus.com mailing list for the glibc project.
Note that libc-hacker is a closed list. You may look at the archives of this list, but subscription and posting are not open.
Index Nav: | [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index] | |
---|---|---|
Message Nav: | [Date Prev] [Date Next] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] |
- To: Frangois Pinard <pinard at iro dot umontreal dot ca>
- Subject: Re: RMS is at it again
- From: tb at MIT dot EDU (Thomas Bushnell, BSG)
- Date: 03 Jul 2000 22:46:46 -0400
- Cc: drepper at cygnus dot com (Ulrich Drepper), BSG at MIT dot EDU,GNU libc hacker <libc-hacker at sourceware dot cygnus dot com>
- References: <m3pup4p14q.fsf@otr.mynet.cygnus.com> <u1hvgys7nix.fsf@hodge-podge.mit.edu> <m3vgysjtwg.fsf@otr.mynet.cygnus.com> <u1h8zvnspu7.fsf@alice-whacker.mit.edu> <m3zoo3dk3e.fsf@otr.mynet.cygnus.com> <oqbt0i9bio.fsf@titan.progiciels-bpi.ca>
[drepper, Please forward to the entire libc-hacker list for me ] =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Fran=E7ois_Pinard?= <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca> writes: > [Ulrich Drepper] > > tb@MIT.EDU (Thomas Bushnell, BSG) writes: > > > > Ah. Alas, digital signatures are not legally valid in the US or any > > > other country that I know of. > > > Ehm, isn't your president signing today the digital signature act (or > > however you are calling this thing)? > > I heard that this is limited to "smart cards". I checked up on the legislation. It is not limited to smart cards. It basically says that a digital signature has to be accepted as broadly as a regular pen-and-ink signature, even in the context of a law which specifies that a written signature is required. (It happens that transfer of copyright is such a law.) So you can now legally transfer copyright with a digital signature. That is unfortunately not good enough for our purposes yet. As with any signature, you have to prove that the real person signed it. Right now we do not have a good enough infrastructure for digital signatures to satisfy most courts, except for the cases where you can assert that Joe Schmoe gave you his PGP key (or fingerprint) when you met him in person. The validation problem remains; it is not clear how the courts will handle it, and until we know, it's probably better to stick with written signatures wherever possible.
Index Nav: | [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index] | |
---|---|---|
Message Nav: | [Date Prev] [Date Next] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] |