Marriage Over The Internet?

lineNoise-nuptuals asks: "I am resident of Detroit, MI, and I am in a relationship with an Asian lady. For reasons of our own, we wish to getting married over the Internet. Has anybody have any experience in this? I know some of my foreign friends living in America, marrying their spouses in their home country over the phone and it is supposedly very legal. The marriage was conducted by their country's local marriage authority. Can this be conducted in America, or more specifically, Detroit? Do you know any local marriage authority willing to perform such a service?"

Re:Under US digital signature law, maybe.

[unitron]

"Try your local UU churches."

Would those be churches practicing Unix to Unix protocol? Seems appropriate. The old fashioned way was over a ham radio link, but that was before spam deluged every known form of communication.

:-)

Re:Under US digital signature law, maybe.

[jerrol]

Well, I know that Virginia does NOT require a blood test, and I doubt that Nevada or New Jersey do either. Marriages can be conducted by proxy in most places...this is most commonly used by active duty military personnel who can't actually show up for the ceremony. Good luck!

I think you'll need a new RFC

[sulli]

Look here [slashdot.org] for some examples. Hypertext Marriage Vow Protocol perhaps?

Re:Under US digital signature law, maybe.

[astar]

If you get past the technical aspects, you still need someone to officiate. Try your local UU churches. They are often willing to perform ceremonies that other church officials will balk at. But you may find that they want to validate your personal reasons! Which might be a good idea if you have not yet talked it over with other people.

Under US digital signature law, maybe.

[phr1]

I've been wondering that very question for a while, since Clinton signed the digital signature law last year. A digital signature in the US is now binding just like a paper signature, with some very narrow exceptions, like you can't electronically sign a request to get your utilities turned off. I didn't see an exception about the documents you have to sign for getting married, so I wondered how long it would be before two people got married in an AOL chat room without ever physically meeting each other (to be clear: I do not think that's a good idea).

Anyway, the digital signature law would seem to clear up one obstacle. Some (all?) US states require a blood test (for syphilis) before you can get a marriage license, and that seems hard to do over the net. Plus your fiancee's country may not have a digital signature law corresponding to ours. Anyway you don't find out whether it works til you try it--you'll be a pioneer.

life imitates comics

[volleybawler]

lemme guess - you've been inspired by the latest Doonesbury [yahoo.com] comics ;)