Re: Keysigning without physically meeting ... thoughts?

[Marc Haber <mh+debian-devel@zugschlus.de>]

On Tue, 31 May 2005 14:13:54 -0600, "Wesley J. Landaker"
<wjl@icecavern.net> wrote:
>Right, but they have to get it notarized (or forge a notary's seal, which is 
>a criminal offense, at least in the US) which requires government ID 
>(again, at least in the US). 

The entire procedure is quite US centric. I don't understand why you
US guys are so fond of your notaries. Over here, it's a three digit
bill for the notary to open the office door and to offer you a chair,
so there might be cultures where one thinks twice or even three times
before having something notarized.

Additionally, the web of trust is the web of trust because it is
entirely self-contained, without putting any trust on government and
state official. Your suggestion violates this principle by moving the
verification state to the notary.

Even if the notary were sufficiently advanced to offer PGP key signing
with her official key this were not good enough for Debian, since the
Debian web of trust explicitly relies on being self-contained. You'd
need to have a DD notary, which at this point makes the signature
valid because of the DD property, and being notary becomes irrelevant.

Greetings
Marc

-- 
-------------------------------------- !! No courtesy copies, please !! -----
Marc Haber         |   " Questions are the         | Mailadresse im Header
Mannheim, Germany  |     Beginning of Wisdom "     | http://www.zugschlus.de/
Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 621 72739834