Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Category Archives: Digital Signatures

Grandmother and grandson visit 62 national parks on adventure of a lifetime

Washington Post: “Joy Ryan, 92, had never seen a mountain. So her grandson decided to take her to every site that has “national park” in its name…“Grandma Joy is a bit of a superhero,” said Brad, a D.C.-based veterinarian. “She is not your typical 92-year-old.” Their trip last August to Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska was one of many journeys Ryan has embarked on with his paternal grandmother, Joy Ryan — whom he calls “Grandma Joy.” They are on a shared mission to visit 63 U.S. National Parks together. Since they started the effort in 2015, they’ve made it to 62…”

Health Care Reform Bill and Debate Available on GPO'S FDsys

News release: “The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has made available the health care reform bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives this past weekend in electronic form. The House floor debate leading up to the passage of the bill can be found in the Congressional Record. The authentic, electronic versions are available on… Continue Reading

Article Examines Digital Rights Management and Consumer Consent

Matwyshyn, Andrea M., “Technoconsen(t)sus” (May 2006). Posted July 19, 2006 [Link to download] “Law is contributing to an information security paradox. Consumers are regularly “consenting” to the installation of computer code that makes them more vulnerable to harms such as identity theft. In particular, digital rights management technology accompanying digital music has recently left a… Continue Reading

GPO to Adopt Document Encrytion Technology

GPO signs on to using PKI: “The Government Printing Office by mid-summer will authenticate government documents using a public-key infrastructure and digital signatures. Judy Russell, the GPO’s superintendent of documents and managing director of information dissemination, yesterday said the office will apply the technology to all documents agencies submit to www.gpoaccess.gov.” Continue Reading

Resistance to E-Signatures From Federal Agencies

The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (“ESIGN”) went into effect on October 1, 2000. It provides that digital signatures are legally valid for use in commercial and government documents. However, compliance with the law has been slow at best, as courts and agencies such as the EPA continue to seek exemptions from… Continue Reading

E-Government Energy Plan for DOE

The Department of Energy’s CIO issued this report, E-Government Strategic Action Plan, A Roadmap for Delivering Services, which was digitally signed by Spencer Abraham, Sec. of Energy. The DOE is pioneering the use of digital signatures to facilitate the dissemination of official documents electronically, saving printing costs. The technology used is from Adobe Systems and… Continue Reading

Digital Authentication in the EU and the US

A new article, Electronic Signatures: A Transatlantic Bridge? An EU and US Legal Approach Towards Electronic Authentication, provides a detailed analysis of how the two parties are approaching the issue of digital signatures in regard to the challenges presented by the e-commerce arena, based on the EU Directive on electronic signatures (1999) and the US… Continue Reading