--- begin forwarded text X-PGP-Key: <http://www.shore.net/~sable/info/rltkey.htm> X-Sender: rodney@pop3.pn.com Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 17:13:25 -0500 To: dcsb@ai.mit.edu From: Rodney Thayer <rodney@sabletech.com> Subject: Digital Signature Mock Trial Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: bounce-dcsb@ai.mit.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: Rodney Thayer <rodney@sabletech.com>

Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 18:37:16 -0500 From: Dan Greenwood <dan@civics.com>

Digital Signature Mock Trial http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/itd/legal/mock1.htm

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Information Technology Division Legal Department will sponsor a mock trial based on a dispute over a digitally signed communication. This will be an online event, probably web-based. There will also be a half-day "court room" mock trial to be held in Boston in the spring. Anyone interested in helping to plan, or participate in one or both of these mock trials should contact Dan Greenwood at dgreenwood@state.ma.us.

The purpose of this exercise will be to explore legal ramifications of deploying digital signature technology as a business tool, including: what grounds for a claim (consumer law, financial and banking law, common law, other?); what issues arise relative to preserving certain evidence for trial; the legal relationship between an "owner" (subscriber) of a digital signature, a relying party and a certification authority; what other evidentiary admissibility issues arise, how might certain contract terms be interpreted (i.e.: what arguments might be raised related to liability limitations, rights and duties under contract); etc. The case will be tried in a fictional jurisdiction and to fictional parties.

The specific factual pattern (i.e.: who are the parties and what happened to them) will be developed so as to highlight areas of legal uncertainty and maximize the instructional value of this exercise. It is expected that this exercise will assist the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and other interested parties to more efficiently manage liability and to better anticipate legal issues as we look to deploy public key based network solutions.

-------- Rodney Thayer <rodney@sabletech.com> PGP: BB1B6428 409129AC 076B9DE1 4C250DD8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe from the dcsb list, send a letter to: Majordomo@ai.mit.edu In the body of the message, write: unsubscribe dcsb Or, to subscribe, write: subscribe dcsb If you have questions, write to me at Owner-DCSB@ai.mit.edu --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "Never attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by stupidity." -- Jerry Pournelle The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/rah/