Legal and Practical Issues regarding LongTerm Digital Preservation

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Legal and Practical Issues regarding Long-Term
Digital Preservation
ECLET Meeting Electronic Media and the Law
Wroclaw 28 October 2005

• Jos Dumortier
• K.U.Leuven
• www.icri.be

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Overview

• Some characteristics of electronic information
  processing
• Archiving paper vs. archiving digital documents
  a comparison
• Typical issues regarding the archival of
  electronic documents
• Archiving strategies
• Legal issues

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a) Electronic documents

• rapid technological evolution
• proliferation (information flood)
• difficult selection
• large variety
• vulnerability (easily modifiable)
• web of documents

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b) ... compared to paper

• difference between storage (bits) and display
  (document)
• separation between document and support
• necessary interaction of hardware and software
• original and copy get a new meaning
• display depending from configuration and
  interface
• one document can be stored in multiple formats
• separation between document and file (one
  document is not necessarily one file)

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c) Typical issues

• electronic documents are more than mere digital
  objects
• what has to be saved content, structure,
  context, lay-out ?
• archiving ensure that the document can be
  processed, read and understood in the (distant)
  future?
• difference between archiving and back-up
• electronic archiving is a complex process

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Intermediate conclusion

• Electronic document
• much more than just the bitstream
• bits interact with hardware and software
• ... in a particular context (often no meaning
  without context need of metadata)
• with multiple links to other documents

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d) Possible archiving strategies

• hardcopy
• emulation
• migration

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Legal issues

• Legal rules often require the presentation of an
  original document
• Original generally means
• paper-based environment handwritten signature,
  seal, ... (not a copy)
• digital environment advanced electronic
  signature?

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Archiving advanced electronic signatures

• First European attempts
• ETSI TS 101733 Electronic Signature Formats
• ETSI TS 101903 XML Advanced E-Signatures
• Problem how will we validate in 2025 an advanced
  electronic signature produced today?

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ETSI TS 101733
Aim is how to guarantee security of a signature
over a long period of time?
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Alternative migration

• Problem if the archived data change (even one
  bit) the signature is no longer valid
• Proposed solution
• strip the signature before archiving the data and
  transform it into metadata
• the archivist will guarantee the authenticity and
  integrity of the data (trusted archival chain)

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Arguments contra migration

• not compatible with the recently created legal
  framework (tailored for emulation focused on
  keeping the bitstream intact)
• the signature should often remain intact for
  legal purposes (non-repudiation)
• the solution only shifts the problem how to
  guarantee the archivists seal?

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How can we solve this dilemma?

• fundamentally revise our concept of
  authenticity?
• which strategy will we adopt in order to be able
  to reconstruct electronic documents in a distant
  future?

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Your opinion, please?
Thank you