[Marlboro-oroblraM]

An interesting question has come up in another forum.

A user wants to potentially use the information on a website as insurance to assist his defense in court at some possible stage in the future. Working on the assumption that that information could change or be deleted at any stage , is it possible to take a "snapshot" of the information/webpage for later legal use?

Or is the lo-tech basics, such as a print-out of a page signed/witnessed by a JP the way to go?

[igs00r]

HTTrack allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack arranges the original site's relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the "mirrored" website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads. HTTrack is fully configurable, and has an integrated help system.


http://www.httrack.com/

[Marlboro-oroblraM]

How can you prove you did not edit the HTML once it was downloaded to your PC?

[layevymed]

How can you prove you did not edit the HTML once it was downloaded to your PC?

Download the relevant pages in the with appropriate witnesses, burn to non re-writable media and lodge with solicitor?

I imagine there is a standard process to such things but really would a website admin lie about content alteration if confronted with evidence of originals.

You should seek legal advise as it is a minefield.

[Marlboro-oroblraM]

Download the relevant pages in the with appropriate witnesses, burn to non re-writable media and lodge with solicitor? I suppose you could get your solicitor to download the requested web pages, but that is getting away from the topic of this forum.

[layevymed]

Yeah it is getting away...

There is nothing to stop alteration of documentation from their end or yours. What you need to preserve is the chain of evidence/custody.

Could be wrong, I don't know the legal system.

[DoctorNiCYDEn]

I'd be speaking to a law talking guy. There's just way too many issues here and it's very likely that the legal crap hasn't caught up with the speed of the web. You just have to look at the dog's breakfast of copyright on the net to see the mine field.

I reckon you'd need to get a JP to witness printouts at the very minimum.

===
I imagine there is a standard process to such things but really would a website admin lie about content alteration if confronted with evidence of originals.
===

The Murdoch's didn't know about phone tapping, Bill Clinton didn't have sexual relations with Monica and OJ didn't do it. BTW I've got this nice bridge for sale.

[Marlboro-oroblraM]

I was thinking of something along the lines of a third party to cache the website/page, like the Wayback machine, but you could nominate the page to be archived.