Non-Repudiation in the Digital Environment (was Re: First Monday August 2000)

[David Jablon]

"Anti-repudiation" sounds good to me.

... even if does remind me of "antidisestablishmentarianism".
Come to think of it, now even that term sounds appropriate here -- as
our belief in the value of methods that deter key "dis-establishment".
Pretty scary.

-- dpj

At 09:08 AM 10/11/00 -0400, Arnold G. Reinhold wrote:
>My concern is that the vast majority of informed lay people, lawyers, 
>judges, legislators, etc. will hear "non-repudiation" and hear 
>"absolute proof."  If you doubt this, read the breathless articles 
>written recently about the new U.S. Electronic Signatures Act.
>
>I don't think technologists should be free to use evocative terms and 
>then define away their common sense meaning in the fine print. 
>Certainly a valid public key signature is strong evidence and 
>services like that described in the draft can be useful. I simply 
>object to calling them "non-repudiation services." I would not object 
>to "anti-repudiation services,"  "counter-repudiation services"  or 
>"repudiation-resistant technology." Would the banking industry employ 
>terms like "forgery-proof checks," "impregnable vaults" or 
>"pick-proof locks" to describe conventional security measures that 
>were known to be fallible?