From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: a07f3367d7,1f4564c446b22de3 X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,public,usenet X-Google-NewGroupId: yes X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,UTF8 Received: by 10.180.106.102 with SMTP id gt6mr574202wib.0.1348233511751; Fri, 21 Sep 2012 06:18:31 -0700 (PDT) Path: ed8ni9081533wib.0!nntp.google.com!feeder1.cambriumusenet.nl!feeder3.cambriumusenet.nl!feed.tweaknews.nl!85.12.40.130.MISMATCH!xlned.com!feeder1.xlned.com!border2.nntp.ams.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!newsfeed.news.ucla.edu!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!weretis.net!feeder4.news.weretis.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx04.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Simon Wright Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Time Stamping a Program in Ada-95 Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2012 19:51:15 +0100 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: References: <02a17083-bfb3-4e27-bb23-efcc85297589@googlegroups.com> <3b2167b3-f8bb-47f0-b9a3-ca9686f6086b@googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Injection-Info: mx04.eternal-september.org; posting-host="a9272c9c584810f74e3f95ce46cbeceb"; logging-data="3235"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19heDy22JwipOfee5ybCsos1symYh/cl9w=" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.2 (darwin) Cancel-Lock: sha1:sn9jRs29xpRCFunrs9oy8Gv9gbQ= sha1:HzZ9ZYPvjWk508z/dJgqDNYHhnA= Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Date: 2012-09-13T19:51:15+01:00 List-Id: Austin Obyrne writes: > On Thursday, September 13, 2012 6:11:49 PM UTC+1, Austin Obyrne wrote: >> Time Stamping a Program in Ada-95 If I ‘compile to listing’ using >> the “Run – Compile to Listing” facility 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 but if I subsequently compile as usual later on i.e. just >> by clicking on the ‘compile’ button in the toolbar of my editor it >> overwrites that earlier time stamp – I think. Lemme explain a bit >> better. When I complete a piece of development work that evolves as >> a piece of software I will want to secure the copyright. Although >> there are many ways of doing this the way I favour most is the >> intrinsic time stamp method i.e. if I compile to listing I will get >> a print-out of the compiler number and the exact time and day on >> which it was last compiled. This is powerful evidence of >> copyright. This is only useful however if it has not been >> accidentally overwritten later by another compile-to-listing >> operation by the same compiler or by a copy of that compiler. I want >> to try and prevent that happening accidentally. Does anybody know >> more about this – is it possible to do both without losing the time >> stamp facility i.e. compile to listing and ordinary periodic >> compiling from the tool bar also? If this is not possible to prevent >> it should be brought to the notice of the powers that be in Ada as a >> useful security function going begging ?? Your help would be >> appreciated as usual. - adacrypt > > Just occurred to me -it isn't necesary to take any steps to prevent > this happening if I make a hard copy of the original first-time > compile-to-listing time stamp ??? - > > That would give me irrefutable copyright evidence surely ? > > I would still appreciate your views. - adacrypt A computer-generated timestamp could easily be faked. I would have thought you could fall back on sending a printout to yourself through the mail and leaving the envelope sealed on receipt. But IANAL.