At 6:03 PM 1/17/95, Robert Rothenberg wrote:

...

Doo-Doo if they timestampped some piece of thoughtcrime; why should somebody who encrypts be any different?

The service could even be advertised as a different form of timestamping (or notarizing). Not only do you get the file back signed, but you get it back encrypted and signed.

Hmmm.... Of course in some cases one may not want the file to be returned with a signature and timestamp (might be incriminating evidence, depending on what one wants stored and the overall political situation where one is, etc....). Of course that does sound useful.

Just as a notary public does not certify that a given document is truth, but rather that it is what it is and the signature belongs to the person who it appears to belong to, a public timestamp/notary/encryption service on the 'net would certify the existence of that document in that form at that time. No more, no less. If I recall correctly, a notary can certify a sealed envelope without knowing its contents, by putting a tamper-proof seal on it. Sound familiar? I'll try to find a notary to see if that's the case. If so, we're got as good a precedent as we'll ever find for just about anything.

Rob <rrothenb@ic.sunysb.edu> Finger for public key

b& -- Ben.Goren@asu.edu, Arizona State University School of Music Finger ben@tux.music.asu.edu for PGP public key ID 0x875B059.