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Regarding the Use of Digital Data in Court?

Posted by Cliff on from the providing-an-ironclad-alibi dept.

iChuckles asks: "Is there a way to make electronic data admissible in court? Can electronic data be used as an alibi? I want to keep an electronic journal, on my work, that is date and time stamped. This journal could be used to prove I came up with an idea on a certain date based upon an entry. Is there a database, or method of recording this data, in electronic form, that will stand up in court? Is there a database that once a record is entered with an accompanying time and date stamp, cannot be altered?"

3 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Systems DO exist by ip_vjl · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Not to come off as a corporate shill, but the company I work for (IP.com) has products for just this sort of thing. The Prior Art Database is used by a lot of big name companies in releasing technical disclosures to prevent future patents. We also have Innovation Q, which protects data privately. Innovation Q is really designed for corporate users, though, as it is subscription based and also adds features like document search, conversion, and management.

    For an individual user like yourself, I'd suggest the following.

    • Save your file in a format that will be accessible years from now (like ASCII text).
    • MD5 the file (or substitute your favorite hashing algorythm)
    • Take out a classified ad in the newspaper each day (that you have a file to timestamp) with the filename and MD5 of the file (good luck getting the paper to print the MD5 correctly)
    • buy and keep a copy of the paper for your records (optional)


    This should allow you to prove you had a file that produced THIS signature on a certain date. You can then recalculate the MD5 of the file you have (and if you haven't modified it) it should produce the same hash - which would lead one to believe that this IS the same file. This should be fairly compelling evidence.

    Yes, it is *possible* to get another file to produce the same MD5, but it is unlikely.

    Another option would be to print out the journal entry and have it notarized. This would be much easier to fake than the MD5 method - but courts have accepted notarized documents for ages.

    - vin

    1. Re:Systems DO exist by ivan256 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Take out a classified ad in the newspaper each day (that you have a file to timestamp) with the filename and MD5 of the file (good luck getting the paper to print the MD5 correctly)

      Cheaper and more reliable is certified mail. Mail the hash to yourself, and you'll have a trusted timestamp that is tested and valid in court. Just don't open the envelope when it arrives. :)

      Better yet, mail a CD with all the data on it to yourself. Then you don't have to explain MD5 to the judge.

  2. It's Heresay by Isao · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Computer data is considered heresay in court.
    If you are serious, record your notes in a written journal (in pen), and take the journal to a subject matter notary once a week (or month) to have them notarized (each page). You may wish to contract this service (it should be cheaper that way than one-offs). This is how intellectual property research can be protected.
    The do-it-yourself method (I don't know how this stands up in court) is to snail-mail copies of your journal pages (say weekly) in tamper-evident envelopes to yourself. Don't open them. They are post-marked by the USPS for date. I suppose you could put your data on a CD weekly or monthly and do the same thing, but the computer-data-as-heresay issue comes up again.