Evidence

Folk wisdom used to hold that you could protect an idea or other intellectual property by mailing yourself a copy and sticking the unopened envelope in a safe deposit box. The postmark on the envelope would serve as proof that you were first with the idea. A new service simply called Evidence (free) brings that concept into the modern world and expands it significantly. When you send an email message using this service, it returns a time-stamped secure certificate that serves as proof that you sent the message and any attachments. Evidence's proof is quite a bit more definitive than a postmark on an envelope.

The company uses the term eEvid to describe a message confirmed by their service. It's pronounced "ee eevid" ? I had to ask. A free basic subscription lets you send 50 eEvids per year; you can earn extra eEvids by successfully referring friends to the service.

If 50 isn't enough, an Evidence+ Unlimited account (69.95 ?/year) lets you send all you want. With an Evidence+ Archive account (29.95 ?/year) the company offers "perpetual safekeeping" of your sent files. Finally the Evidence+ Suite (84.92 ?/year) offers both archiving and unlimited eEvids. Yes, the pricing is strictly in Euros, so your exact cost in dollars will depend on the day's exchange rate.

Sending an eEvid
As soon as you sign up for a free account and define a password, you're ready to use Evidence. Sending an eEvid is ridiculously simple. All you do is append ".eevid.com" to the address of each recipient, for example, billg@microsoft.com.eevid.com. Of course, you must send from the account with which you signed up for the service.

The Evidence server generates a record of sending, strips the added eevid.com from the addresses, and sends the message along to each recipient. You receive a digitally signed and time-stamped response certifying the message, its contents, and delivery.

?Your response from Evidence includes two PDF files. One contains the message contents and header, the other includes SHA-256 hashes of the first file and of any attachments. Since any modification of the file would change the hash, this data serves as proof that the file is unchanged. And as the certificate is digitally signed using the timestamp, it's also secured against tampering.

The message's recipient won't have any idea that you've used this service. If you want to be sure the recipient knows you're retaining confirmation, you'll have to say so in the message. OK, technically there are clues in the message header that point to the Evidence servers, but there's no reason for the recipient to go poking around in the message header.

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