Text of (original) draft EU DIGITAL SIGNATURE DIRECTIVE

[Peter Gutmann]

>>>2. "digital signature" means an electronic signature which uses an asymmetric
>>>cryptographic technique such that a person having the signatory's public key
>>>can determine whether:
>>The nomenclature seems absurd:  all electronic signatures are digital.  And
>>is it right that although RSA keys are asymmetric, DH keys are symmetric?
>>If so, this definition inappropriately favours a particular technical
>>solution.
>I think it's making a distinction between HMACs and signatures. DH is an
>asymmetric technique, but it can be used to agree on symmetric keys.
 
That's quite likely.  Smart card manufacturers fairly consistently use the term
"signature" to indicate something like a DES-MAC (they tend to make things look
like it's a lot better than what's really there by redefining terminology, I've
seen a 24-bit checksum referred to as a digital signature.  This often makes
reading their specs quite confusing).  The definition above is probably to 
stop this sort of thing happening.
 
Peter.