Re: Time Stamping a Program in Ada-95

[Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201209.rodent.frell.theremailer.net>]

On 2012-09-13, Austin Obyrne <austin.obyrne@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Time Stamping a Program in Ada-95
>
> I can get a time stamp declaration of the day and exact time instant
> of that compiling that is very useful in a court of law later as
> documentary evidence...I will want to secure the copyright.

Forget about compiling.  Just timestamp the source code, and use a
digital notary to do it.  Sign your code (using GPG or the like), and
then email it to post@stamper.itconsult.co.uk, and make this first
line in the body of your message:

  x-stamper-to: austin.obyrne@hotmail.com

The contents of the email will be cryptographically signed by a third
party attesting that the content existed at that point in time.  The
message you send will be hashed with whatever message preceeded yours
(or its hash), (thus limiting the possibility that the third party
could signficantly fabricate the timestamp).  You'll get a certificate
number which can be used to later locate the records if needed.

IIRC, the maintainer (Matthew Richardson) has appeared in court to
validate timestamps.  Perhaps only British courts.. not sure on that.

This service is unofficial AFAIK, but would still be difficult to
dispute the evidence.