Re: Quoting Portions of a Signed Document

17 Dec 2003

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On 11/26/97 5:15 AM, Bill Stewart (stewarts@ix.netcom.com)  passed
this wisdom:
...
But then Geiger brings out the other important point:
...
Then what does the sub signature really tell you? Yes you can 
verify that the quote was written by someone but it may be taken 
completely out of context. How about when several blocks of text 
from different messages are combined. Each individual block checks 
out but by combining them the text has a completely different 
meaning than the original document.
I haven't been follwing this thread that closely, but skimming mch
of it and then rereading this whole post, I must concur that the
context issue renders much of the discussion moot unless you can not
only relate individual sub-blocks to the whole message it came from in
the proper order ... it seems to me we are right back where we
started, quoting referenced message(s) in entirety.

  It occurrs to me that if an issue is important enough that the
veracity and autheticity of a given passage is that critical,
including entire messages is of trivial concern. Now it could be
handled by the discussion participant quoting out of context and
'footnoting' his quote with a message ID. The message corresponding to
that ID has its entire text is signed and publicly stored and
accessible. If it needs to be checked then go check it, if not take it
on faith and read on.

Brian B. Riley --> http://www.macconnect.com/~brianbr
   For PGP Keys  <mailto:brianbr@together.net?subject=Get%20PGP%20Key>

  "Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis
   for a system of government."  -- author unknown