Fax (was Re: Nine technologies that have faded into history)

I don't recall the exact wording, but basically any setup that scans a physical document, transfers a representation over a telecommunication system, and recreates it as s physical document again meets the US legal definition of facsimile. There doesn't have to be a "fax machine" as you would normally consider it, and Internet email should qualify for the telecommunication, but if the document doesn't start and end in physical form, it isn't a fax. In other words, if I sign a paper contract, scan it, email it to someone, and they print it, it has been faxed. But if I start with a PDF file, sign it in a graphics program, and email that, it has not been faxed because it did not originate as a physical document. If the PDF was originally a scan of a paper document, but I fill it in digitally, then email it, that's not a fax because the electronic document is not an accurate, unaltered representation of a physical document. [I'm not a lawyer, so take this with a suitably large grain of salt.]