Abstract
Liability is an essential but a non-resolved question of commercial and legal development of certification entities. The issuing, distribution and use of a certificate, together with an eventual revocation or suspension of same up to its expiration date, generate relationships between implicated parties (basically, the provider of certification services, the subscriber and the user of the certificate) which set up the need to limit and clarify respective rights, obligations and eventual liabilities of each party. We analyze liability of certification authorities from a juridical point of view; the study is centered mainly in the content of the European Directive and the Spanish Law on electronic signatures, but we also refer to other laws (such as Utah Digital Signature Law, and Italian law on electronic signatures). We conclude criticizing legal rules on liability because they are incomplete and excessive, without taking into proper account the necessary balance of all involved parties.
Keywords
- Certification Authority
- Electronic Signature
- European Directive
- Qualified Certificate
- Certification Service
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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References
ABA (American Bar Association), Digital signature guidelines, Legal infrastructure for Certification Authorities and secure electronic commerce, Information Security Committee, Electronic Commerce and Information Technology Division, Section of Science and Technology, August 1, 1996, USA.
Commission of the European Communities, Proposal of Directive of the European Parliament, and the Council for a common framework on electronic signatures (COM (1998) 297 final).
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Real Deceto-Ley 14/1999, de 14 de septiembre, de firma electrónica, (Spanish Electronic Signature Law), 1999.
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UNCITRAL (Commission of the United Nations for the International Commercial Law), Model Law on Electronic commerce, 1997.
Utah Digital Signature Law, 1995 (later modified in 1997 and 2000).
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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Martínez-Nadal, A., Ferrer-Gomila, J.L. (2001). Liability of Certification Authorities: A Juridical Point of View. In: Davida, G.I., Frankel, Y. (eds) Information Security. ISC 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2200. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45439-X_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45439-X_14
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