[cap-talk] SSL protection racket

[Karp, Alan H]

David-Sarah Hopwood wrote:
>
> Let's not exaggerate. The defining characteristic of a
> protection racket
> is that there is an implied threat to do harm to anyone who
> fails to pay up.
> The patent system is a protection racket in this sense; the
> certificate
> market is not. Simply throwing up irritating dialogs at users
> does not count
> as a threat to do harm.
>
Sure it is.  "Pay up or we'll scare some of your customers away."  In fact, if the Firefox 3 approach is adopted that becomes, "Pay up or most of your customers won't be able to figure out how to reach you."

________________________
Alan Karp
Principal Scientist
Virus Safe Computing Initiative
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
(650) 857-3967, fax (650) 857-7029
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Alan_Karp