A directory of FAQ's on other subjects is here.

Table of Contents

1. Who should use this Digital Time Stamping service?
2. How much does e-TimeStamp cost?
3. How does e-TimeStamp differ from a notary?
4. Are the contents of my file kept confidential during Time Stamping?
5. How does this tool assist in copyright protection?
6. What types of files can be TimeStamped?
7. How do I create a TimeStamp?
8. What are the limits to the size of the files that can be Time Stamped?
9. How often do I e-TimeStamp a file that I'm working on?
10. Does an e-TimeStamp meet the legal standard for using electronic records as legal evidence?
11. Has a time stamp been used to settle a legal dispute?
12. What do I need to prove my e-TimeStamp is valid?
13. What if DigiStamp ceases to offer their time stamp service?
14. How can I get technical details about time stamps and international standards?

Anyone with intellectual property such as ideas, research, formulas, algorithms, books, teaching materials, etc.

See the related subject: What types of files can be TimeStamped?

Below is a list of professions that can benefit from e-TimeStamp. Some of the professions have an attached description that can been seen by clicking on the title

Accountants Architects Corporations Doctors Engineers Entrepreneurs Graphic Artists

Inventors Musicians Non-Disclosures Researchers Small Business Owners Software developers Writers

We continue to get mail from our users and are surprised by the diversity of uses for this product. This WEB page will be updated as we incorporate their experiences.

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How much does e-TimeStamp cost?

You download our client software application, IP-Protector, for no charge and there is a trial credit for time stamp transactions. The trial credit is to help new users try the service. To verify an existing time stamp or digital signature, there is no cost.

Charges occur when you create a time stamp for a particular computer file or when you time stamp a digital signature. When creating a digital signature with our software, the signature is also time stamped. The charge for a single time stamp is 50 cents (USD $ 0.50).  There is a $10 minimum for additions to your account using your credit card.

The pricing is the same using our desktop application or the API Secure Time^TM developer toolkits. Volume discounts begin after 500 time stamps.

Volume transactions each the first 500 $0.50 next 4500 .40 next 20,000 .30 next 75,000 .20 next 500,000 .04

An annual minimum of 5% of your volume level is required to maintain your volume discount. If you would like a price quote, please send us you volume expectations and we can demonstrate your costs over time.

A 25% discount is given to non-profit organizations that are performing medical or environmental research.

Verifying the authenticity of a time stamp or signature is done without accessing our service and therefore, there is never a charge.

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How does e-TimeStamp differ from a notary?

Many people have historically used a notary to protect Intellectual Property. A notary is defined in many countries as a witness to a person's presence and that they applied their signature to a page. The notary is not commonly a witness to the contents of your document or that the contents have not been altered. Now, the local notary can be updated with e-TimeStamp.

e-TimeStamp provides unequivocal proof that the contents of any computer file existed at a point-in-time and have not changed since that time. The digital stamp is virtually impossible to forge. A single e-TimeStamp can handle 1-1000 or more pages right from your computer - verifying the exact contents. The paper forms and cost associated with a notary is just old-fashioned for proving data authentication.

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Are the contents of my file kept confidential during TimeStamping?

Yes, using e-TimeStamp retains complete confidentiality: Only the file's fingerprint is sent over the Internet. From the fingerprint, it is not possible to discover the contents of your file. (additional information at How does e-TimeStamp Work)

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How does this tool assist in copyright protection?

e-TimeStamp helps the author prove when his/her idea was expressed - this is the moment under U.S. law when copyright protection begins. e-TimeStamp is especially effective for protecting work before the author knows whether it will be published.

In the U.S., your work is automatically protected by copyright law from the moment of its creation. This protection remains throughout the author's life, plus 50 years. It is important to note that this protection is given without obtaining a registered copyright. Official registration may be made at any time within the life of the copyright.

What's important is the ability to prove that you originated the work. e-TimeStamp is a tool that helps provide that proof for the author.

To demonstrate a possible scenario: A graphic artist creates 50 "candidate logos" in a week. All the logos are saved in a single computer file and that file is e-TimeStamped. Next, the artist shows those 50 logos to a potential client at a meeting. The client does not purchase any of the work. Six months later, one of those logos appears on the client's WEB site without the author's permission. At this time, the author submits the government registration copies and $20 to register the copyright for the infringed logo. The author can use the e-TimeStamp to prove that he had created this logo months before. The infringement case is easier to prove.

A simple e-TimeStamp for all your work helps prepare you for a possible infringement situation.

Copyright law can be complex and we suggest that you consult with your legal counsel. The U.S. Copyright Office web site has extensive information.

Another factor to consider is that if an official copyright registration (submit form, copies and $20) is made within 3 months after publication, statutory damages and attorney's fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.

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What types of files can be TimeStamped?

e-TimeStamp is truly versatile: any file on your computer can be TimeStamped.

That is one of the benefits of our new Digital Age; So many different kinds of things are captured in their digital form. To list a few:

· Word Processing documents · Artwork, Images, Photographs, and Video · Financial records

· Music Clips & Wave Files · Web Pages, Software source and executables

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How do I create a digital time stamp?

There are 3 easy steps to use e-TimeStamp:

1. You will need to install the DigiStamp software on your computer. This software will create and manage your e-TimeStamps

2. Run the newly installed software on your computer. The "create certificate" button will list the files on your computer. Choose the file that you want to create an e-TimeStamp for.

3.Once you've selected your file, the software computes your file's unique FingerPrint. Then, it automatically communicates over the Internet to retrieve an encrypted-electronic certificate containing the current time and your file's fingerprint. The software also saves the e-TimeStamp certificate on your computer.

The newly installed software can be used later to prove that the contents of your file have not changed since you created your e-TimeStamp certificate.

The e-TimeStamp software is easy to use. Additional information is available on this WEB site to give you more details about how e-TimeStamp works.

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What are the limits to the size of the files that can be TimeStamped?

You can TimeStamp a single page document, one of a 1000 pages or even more in a single document. The upper limit on a file's size is a million times larger than the capacity of your computer. In technical terms, the file size limit is up to 2⁶⁴ bits as described in the Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 180-1 "Secure Hash Standard" ). For practical purposes, when using the SHA for documents up to the size of a few hundred megabytes then it is extremely unlikely that a hash collision will be found. We also support expanded hash functions, for example up to SHA-512 in our developer toolkits and we use SHA-256 in our Desktop software.

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How often do I e-TimeStamp a file that I'm working on?

You re-stamp a file if the contents have changed. The same file may undergo many revisions. Each time you feel the document has been significantly enhanced, you make a copy to a unique name. Then, e-TimeStamp the copy that will be saved in its current status (no more changes to the copy).

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Does an e-TimeStamp meet the legal standard for using electronic records as legal evidence?

Yes, the IETF standard for time stamps and the DigiStamp process do comply with the Uniform Rules of Evidence Code. In the United States, the general admissibility of electronic records is well established, provided authenticity can be proven. In the Uniform Rules of Evidence Code, evidence of a process or system that produces an accurate result is the fundamental test for producing trusted electronic evidence.

The European Directive on a community framework for Electronic Signatures defines an electronic signature as: "data in electronic form which is attached to or logically associated with other electronic data and which serves as a method of authentication". The electronic signature and time stamp created by DigiStamp is a form of advanced electronic signature as defined in the Directive.

In 1995, the American Bar Association published the Electronic Commerce Guidelines. The legal strength of e-TimeStamp is found in the unique hash value and encryption as well as the trusted third party.

You can read the latest information about the legal community's acceptance of digital signatures click here

The people at DigiStamp are not lawyers and we suggest the you discuss with your attorney the specifics of your situation. We publish our legal counsel disclaimer here.

Please note that large corporations have used this technique for years as part of their proof of intellectual property rights. Now, due to the Internet technologies, this service is more universally available.

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Has a time stamp been used to settle a legal dispute?

Time stamps and digital signatures have not been tested in a court case, in our research. Time stamps and digital signatures have been used in legal disputes. The legal community has described the situation where the time stamp or digital signature is presented as evidence between opposing parties before presenting their cases. The opposing counsels chose not to spend the effort to attempt to refute the time stamps, so this one point was just accepted. Therefore, it did not convert to case law because it was not refuted in the courts.

As of the end of 2004, DigiStamp has delivered more than 1 million time stamps and none have been challenged in court. You need to talk with your lawyer to consider your situation.

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How do I verify the authenticity of my TimeStamp certificate?

There are 2 things you will need to verify that your TimeStamp is valid at a future date:

1. The original, unchanged computer file which you selected when creating this certificate.
2. The e-TimeStamp certificate which is saved in the software we provided you

The e-TimeStamp certificate contains your file's fingerprint and the TimeStamp. These are electronically sealed in the e-TimeStamp certificate and stored on your computer.

The e-TimeStamp software on your computer is used to do the verification . All the timestamps are verified automatically each time the software is run.

Anyone with the e-TimeStamp software installed could verify your TimeStamp. You can choose to send your original file and the e-TimeStamp certificate to someone as proof of the content at a point in time. A step-by-step description of using the software to verify a timestamp is here.

A copy the public key certificate is transferred to your computer when you create your time stamp. The software automatically copies the new certificate to your computer when you create a time stamp. Screen shots of using the software are here: and . The certificates can be retrieved manually from the DigiStamp web site here.

Your timestamps can also be verified without using e-TimeStamp software. Additional technical details are available in the question below.

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What if DigiStamp ceases to offer their time stamp service?

You can verify a time stamp without contacting DigiStamp - you do not depend upon DigiStamp offering this service or being in business. A time stamp from DigiStamp does not expire.

Our time stamps are provided as an industry standard 'digital signature' record. Therefore, other software can be used to verify a time stamp from DigiStamp. You would need:
1. Your original, unchanged file
2. The time stamp you create using DigiStamp's service
3. Our public key, an x.509 public key certificate

A copy the public key certificate is transferred to your computer when you create your time stamp. The certificates can be retrieved manually from the DigiStamp web site here.

For example, we have customers that use our service inside Microsoft and Java applications. These customers use the Digital Signature capabilities that are built into Java or the Microsoft OS to verify the time stamps locally - without contacting DigiStamp. Additional technical details are available here.

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