Electronic Evidence and Electronic Signatures

In this updated edition of the well-established practitioner text, Stephen Mason and Daniel Seng have brought together a team of experts in the field to provide an exhaustive treatment of electronic evidence and electronic signatures. This fifth edition continues to follow the tradition in English evidence text books by basing the text on the law of England and Wales, with appropriate citations of relevant case law and legislation from other jurisdictions. Stephen Mason (of the Middle Temple, Barrister) is a leading authority on electronic evidence and electronic signatures, having advised global corporations and governments on these topics. He is also the editor of International Electronic Evidence (British Institute of International and Comparative Law 2008), and he founded the innovative international open access journal Digital Evidence and Electronic Signatures Law Review in 2004. Daniel Seng (Associate Professor, National University of Singapore) is the Director of the Centre for Technology, Robotics, AI and the Law (TRAIL). He teaches and researches information technology law and evidence law. Daniel was previously a partner and head of the technology practice at Messrs Rajah & Tann. He is also an active consultant to the World Intellectual Property Organization, where he has researched, delivered papers and published monographs on copyright exceptions for academic institutions, music copyright in the Asia Pacific and the liability of Internet intermediaries

Electronic Evidence and Electronic Signatures

In this updated edition of the well-established practitioner text, Stephen Mason and Daniel Seng have brought together a team of experts in the field to provide an exhaustive treatment of electronic evidence and electronic signatures. This fifth edition continues to follow the tradition in English evidence text books by basing the text on the law of England and Wales, with appropriate citations of relevant case law and legislation from other jurisdictions. Stephen Mason (of the Middle Temple, Barrister) is a leading authority on electronic evidence and electronic signatures, having advised global corporations and governments on these topics. He is also the editor of International Electronic Evidence, and he founded the innovative international open access journal Digital Evidence and Electronic Signatures Law Review in 2004. Daniel Seng (Associate Professor, National University of Singapore) is the Director of the Centre for Technology, Robotics, AI and the Law (TRAIL). He teaches and researches information technology law and evidence law. Daniel was previously a partner and head of the technology practice at Messrs Rajah & Tann. He is also an active consultant to the World Intellectual Property Organization, where he has researched, delivered papers and published monographs on copyright exceptions for academic institutions, music copyright in the Asia Pacific and the liability of Internet intermediaries

Science fictions, cultural facts: a digital humanities approach to a popular literature

Human culture has a necessary influence on the content of popular literature – if only because the interests of a contemporary public determine material success or failure. Authors are products of their time, and popular writers will tend to reflect the cultural expectations and values of their readership. It follows that we should be able to find the imprint of human culture in popular literature if we employ suitable methods. Science fiction (SF) is well suited for such investigation, as it is open in scope and subject, and less restricted by content conventions than other genres. As a publishing medium, magazines, specifically, are valuable literary artefacts of popular culture. They contain fiction, editorials, advertising, reader letters, and features on matters of contemporary importance. These all contribute to build an understanding of their cultural environment. In this thesis, I begin by assessing the relevance of SF as a relevant source of popular insights by tasking SF magazine content as a lens to focus on human culture, analysing the genre and its value in contemporary research and society. I review the uses of SF in academic literature, and analyse public surveys to identify the breadth and relevance of its popular appeal. I describe the phenomenological experience of developing a hybrid digital and traditional methodology from the perspective of someone with no history of digital research in the humanities and employ a series of case studies which test the validity of the approach. The case studies provide insights into the cultural history of two topics: the foundations and subsequent development of Scientology; and the changing representations of tropical environments and peoples. An aim of this study is to devise and demonstrate methodology that respects the human experience of literature, but also integrates the value of employing technological approaches that expand the scope of investigation. The primary sources comprise more than 4,000 individual magazine issues – perhaps thirty percent of issues of magazines dedicated to SF in the twentieth century – and complete, or near complete runs of major titles. The value to the research process of having a significant number of sources is to counter the bias contained in the phenomenological bracket of the researcher. The expectations researchers are influenced by contemporary culture, and personal preferences, and this is likely to affect the perceived significance of specific historic texts. This selection bias could lead to the rejection of content that contains relevant insights. To address these issues, I devised a digital humanities methodology for selecting primary sources, and to complement discussion of the results. The results of applying the methodology strongly support the proposal that SF can provide a valuable indicator of cultural values, preferences and expectations – being widespread and commonly appreciated by contemporary audiences. SF is confirmed to be a valuable and relevant source of information on the evolving history of human cultural interests