On Wednesday 02 Feb 2011, Binand Sethumadhavan wrote:
2011/2/2 Nitesh Mistry mailbox@mistrynitesh.net:
the messages with pgp keys is more meaningful than you just writing your name below every message. Because anybody can write any name below the message, but nobody other than me can pgp sign a message with key id A6FEF696. If you want a proof that the name mentioned on the key A6FEF696 is really Nitesh Mistry, you are always welcome to meet me and I can give all the documents in the world to prove it (and no I won't bite you ;) ).
The point from day one is that it carries no additional meaning in a mailing list context; all you are doing is reducing the S/N. If you cannot grasp that, why bother?
I don't agree that signing messages is reducing S/N on a list. PGP/GPG signing does accomplish the following:
- Encourage more people to ask questions about and hopefully adopt privacy-friendly practices in public communications.
- Establish a non-repudiable ownership of the content of the message.
- Establish prior art in case you put an idea into a message which someone steals.
I sign messages to mailing lists on a regular (if infrequent) basis, never had a complaint yet.
Of course, if Nitesh' key isn't available for download from a keyserver then the effectiveness of the signing does go down, but it still serves the same basic functions.
Regards,
-- Raj