Brown Motion

Who goes around getting someone's autographs? Obviously a large chunk of humanity. I was at a recent conference where an apparently successful author had just published a book on the hot topic of the day. After the conference there was a mad rush of book buyers to get this person to sign their copy of the book. Now first question - In today's day and age of rampant identity theft do these authors actually pen their signature like they were signing a check? Or do they have a fake signature to give out to the millions of dolts that want this scribble on an otherwise pristine copy? In case of the latter its already a sham since what that person does on someone's copy of the book is equivalent to graffiti as its not the real thing. If it is a real signature then it actually might prove that the book belongs to the signer and not the signee and further screws up the idea of owning a new copy. If the person signing is giving out his signatures willy nilly to any homeles...