(DF) My private key somehow comes into the hands
of a third party who uses it to impersonate me. What is my
Am I bound by agreements signed with my private key? [Someone
might find it interesting to do a search for old cases involving
seals--physical objects used to authenticate
(DF) Suppose I give my private key to someone else--say my girlfriend. How does that affect my legal responsibility for documents signed with that key? Her responsibility if she passes it on to someone else--say her new boyfriend?
(DF) An obvious weakness of any system to protect
privacy by encryption is its vulnerability to human
error--individuals who reveal information that the system treats
secret, as in the example above. How might you design a system
minimize that risk?
(DF) The police have evidence that you have been
engaged in some illegal enterprise such as gambling or drugs and
seized your computer--only to discover that all the files on it
encrypted. Under current law, can they penalize you for refusing
decrypt the documents? You might want to think about
arguments for and against.
(PYS) More and more individuals are storing their data in "the cloud". How can they maintain their privacy when their private communications are only a subpoena or National Security Letter away?
(DF) Online commerce, especially with anonymity, raises serious problems for state taxation. What are different ways in which the states might deal with those problems? You might consider, in the case of schemes that require cooperation with the state where the seller is located, whether or not it is in the interest of that state to provide such cooperation.
AC: Angus Cannon
DF: David Friedman
PYS: Previous Year Student
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