The ESIGN act of 2000, theoretically, helped to clarify what qualifies as an “electronic signature” by defining it as “an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.”

Theoretically, just about anything could qualify as an electronic signature so long as it showed an intent to sign the document and would be “logically associated with a contract.”

While this seems to open the door to a wide variety of simple signature techniques, /s/ being one of the most popular, it hasn’t prevented confusion. For example, until very recently, would not accept DMCA notices that did not include a physical, handwritten signature. This meant would-be filers had to either fax or mail in their notices, creating additional delays and hassles.

However, at least some of the largest DMCA filers have taken to using Pretty Good Privacy, PGP, as a way to ensure that their documents are signed, verifiable and that their emailed DMCA notices are valid.

Is it something you should consider? It depends on what kind of filing you are doing.

The Basics of PGP and PGP Signatures

PGP is best known as an encryption tool, as both a way to encrypt documents locally on a computer or to ensure secure transmission of them via the Web.

The idea is fairly simple. As a PGP user, you have both a public key and a private key. You pass out your public key for everyone to use, including posting them on dedicated repositories, and keep your private one to yourself.

If you wanted to send someone an encrypted email or file, you would download their public key, use it to encrypt the file. You then send the encrypted content and only the other person, with their private key, can decrypt it.

The process also works to create electronic signatures. If you wanted to sign an email, you would use your private key to create a hash of the email that the person on the other side could use your public key to verify it. Any alteration of the email would break the hash and cause the signature to be invalid.

While the idea behind PGP was to create a secure email system, as opposed to the open system we have now where all messages are “in the clear” and easily readable long their routes, PGP never caught on in a big way and has limited use.

However, at least some of the largest DMCA filers have been using PGP signatures with their DMCA notices, putting them in the extreme minority that use PGP regularly.

But why would they do that and, more importantly, is it something other filer should be looking at doing?

Why Use PGP Signatures on DMCA Notices?

There are two clear reasons to use PGP signatures with DMCA notices:

1. Fulfill the Electronic Signature Requirement: Though excessive, I can’t imagine an argument where signing a document via PGP wouldn’t meet the electronic signature requirement of the law.
2. Prevent Impostors: The use of a PGP key would prevent others from spoofing their activity and using their name to file false takedown notices, at least as long as the signature is validated.

Considering that PGP is free to implement and can be automated as part of the DMCA (or any email) process, larger companies have little reason NOT to use PGP signatures. Even if the benefit is small, if you’re sending out thousands of notices per day it makes sense to go ahead with it.

But what if you’re only sending one or two a week? Does it still make sense?

The answer is probably not. The reason is that the time, energy and effort requires to set up PGP and to sign outgoing documents is probably better spent elsewhere.

The reason is that, even for those filing thousands of DMCA notices a day, most of the signatures were overkill, meaning a simple text signature would have sufficed, and very few of the signatures are likely validated, save possibly by an automated system with their largest partners.

However, they are concerned about the one time someone does try to impersonate them or the one company that won’t accept a text-only signature. It’s an easy way to ensure that ALL bases are covered, because with so many notices even a .1% problem rate can mean dozens fo returned DMCA notices every month.

That can be a lot of headaches for a company trying to automate all of its activities.

Bottom Line

In the end, unless you’re an extreme case where PGP makes sense, it’s probably best to skip on it for sending your notices, especially if you aren’t technically inclined as you could do more harm than good (it can be easy to corrupt your own signatures, making them seem invalid).

Instead, it’s better to move on as is and deal with the rare outliers as they come.

Though it would be nice to live in a world where PGP was common, we’re simply not there and that makes any effort dedicated to PGP, most likely, a waste.

Still, it is fun to play around with and learn how to use. So, if you want to see what PGP is about, download GnuPGP and give it a try.

Even if you can’t use it much, it’s nice to imagine what email could be like if it had caught on.

1: Public Booted from DVD Copying Trial Over ‘Secret’ CSS Code

First off today, in a move that has many left scratching their heads, the judge the in RealDVD case, which pits the MPAA against Real over their DVD ripping software, booted the media out of the courtroom to protect the “secrecy” of the CSS encryption key used to protect DVDs from being ripped.

Though this seems to make sense as the key is technically a corporate secret, the CSS encryption key as well as software to rip DVDs has been publicly available even open sourced for quite some time. In fact, one of the CSS keys itself was the subject of a Digg user revolt when Digg pulled down an article that featured the key. This resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, or articles with the key being submitted and the key being printed on t-shirts, mugs and more.

The judge in the case said she did not wish to go through “bit by bit” and analyze what was and was not a corporate secret so she booted the media from the courtroom during the parts of the testimony dealing with the CSS system.

2: Rapper Lil Wayne sues song’s producer

Next up, in a story of local interest to me in New Orleans, rapper Lil Wayne is suing Rebel Rock Productions Inc., claiming that the company failed to clear rights for a sample he used in one of his songs, which in turn is why he was sued by folk singer Karma-Ann Swanepoel last year.

Swanepoel sued Wayne for copyright infringement after his song “I Feel Like Dying” sampled Swanepoel’s track entitled “Once”. That case is on going and, most recently, Wayne was forced by a judge to give up records related to album sales for the calculation of possible damages.

3: Italian Courts Target Pirate Bay

Finally today, an Italian prosecutor is targeting The Pirate Bay founders, who were just found guilty in a controversial court case in their home country of Sweden. The four men, who were sentenced to one year in prison and given a hefty fine, are facing identical charges in Italy.

However, the prosecutor makes it clear that there is no chance of extradition to Italy over these charges and, instead, focuses on seizing assets to repay copyright holders and to enforce a block of The Pirate Bay, which was overruled and overturned in October of last year.

The prosecutor in the case feels comfortable that he will be able to get a conviction and the local copyright lobbies have expressed confidence that they will be able to get the ban re-instituted.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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