[449] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Digital Signature Mock Trial
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rodney Thayer)
Tue Apr 1 21:06:09 1997
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 05:40:59 -0500
To: spki@c2.net, certstor-wg@consensus.com, ietf-pkix@tandem.com
From: Rodney Thayer <rodney@sabletech.com>
Cc: dgreenwood@state.ma.us
>>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.
