Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Subject: Re: Len Rose and problems in Illinois
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 90 06:58:45 GMT
Message-ID: <1990Nov01.065845.19367@looking.on.ca>
References: <1990Oct29.175540.23987@uncecs.edu> <1990Oct30.035606.1282@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> <4576@rsiatl.UUCP> <18663@rpp386.cactus.org> <1990Oct31.212235.6101@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>

In article <1990Oct31.212235.6101@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> paul@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (Paul Pomes - UofIllinois CSO) writes:
>Sounds like a serious cover your ass operation to me.  Mix in a few threats
>(as if you could prove anyone made a particular posting on Usenet)

Actually, I am not so sure about this.   If I were a judge, and I understood
USENET and I heard testimony that:

a) A posting that looked completely like a valid posting from user X was
posted, and received on many sites with valid Path: lines for the poster's
site

b) The posting received mail replies sent over fairly reliable mail paths,
as well as followups.

c) User X saw these replies and/or followups

d) User X, seeing these replies, did not quickly point out to those
involved that it was a forgery

e) User X was in town, reading the net, and there is no evidence of massive
tampering on all the replies and followups.

Then I would conclude that it had indeed been proven that User X posted the
identified message.   The above body of evidence is not hard to gather,
particularly if you go out to gather it shortly after the message was posted.

If you want to claim that your authorship can't be proven on a message,
you had better not leave any evidence that you got replies and did nothing,
and you most definitely had better not respond to those replies.

Yes, a forgery is still possible even with all the above evidence, but it
would require a massive, coordinated, planned effort.  It is easier
to forge a signature, but they hold up in court.
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
