[1] From: Andrew Armour <armour@pncl.co.uk> (13)
Subject: Digital signatures for e-text archives
May I suggest the use of digital signatures for e-text archiving and
distribution? It is a simple and reliable solution to the problems of
authentication and version control that could sink the Net-based, anarchic
archiving system towards which we seem to be headed.
Signing files with PGP (freeware) is trivial, and it has the added benefit
of compression. My own e-texts compress to less than half their size, can be
authenticated & opened by anyone, but "forged" by no one. Moreover, each PGP
signature includes a date/time stamp. A minor drawback is that (unlike
pkzip) you must pack each file separately; perhaps the next version of PGP
will solve this problem.
I also plan to post the detached signature certificates of the most recent
versions of my e-texts on the Web.
Andrew Armour
Keio University