RE: Signatures (manual or digital), was: End of faxing

Well, my basic question still stands ... who's to say an electronic
signature is valid?

All the act does is say that an electronic signature can't be treated as
"less reliable" just because it's electronic. Just like an ink signature
you need to "prove" that it's mine. If a check is "signed" with a pen I
can dispute that signature, as I can dispute that I e-signed something.
It's then a matter of fact for the courts to decide. We strongly
recommend that anyone doing e-sigs record the remote IP and a _reliable_
(ntp synchronized) timestamp of the signing so you can at least point to
the remote machine and time that the signing occurred.

If I were to create a PGP signature for WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and
upload it to various PGP key servers, would that signature allow me to
open bank accounts, credit cards, etc, in your name? (not that I

would,

mind you)

Well, that's a digital signature, not an e-sig, but if you had a bank
that took a PGP signature then yes, I'd suppose you could. But that's no
different than you walking into a bank w/a fake id and opening an
account in my name today. Plus, if the bank knew anything about PGP they
would only allow you to use the signature if they trusted the signature,
so you'd have to have convinced someone they trusted to sign your fake
signature.

-Walden