Subject: Re: draft-ietf-pkix-warranty-ext-01

From: "Adrian McCullagh" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 13:04:33 +1000

Hi Denis and others,

In your last email on this topic you wrote:

     "The Certificate Warranty qualifier contains a direct pointer to a
subpart
   of the Certification Practice Statement (CPS) published by the CA.  The
   pointer is in the form of a URI.  Processing requirements for this
   qualifier are a local matter."

I do not think this is a good idea from both a commercial perspective and a
legal perspective.

Firstly, I believe that it is doubtful that a relying party will read a
CPS.  Mainly because nearly all of the CPS's that I have encountered have
been very enstensive and frankly are a difficult to read.  Basically they
are not what I would call consumer friendly.

Secondly, notwithstanding the Uniform Commercial Code, the burying of
certificate warranty provisions in a CPS could result in a Court holding
that the warranty limit can not be relied upon.  It really defeats the
exercise of extending the financial trust factor.

I agree that a URL pointer to the warranty provisions would be advantageous
which could (note I said could not would, I am undecided on this point at
this time) force the relying party to the url and maybe an acceptance
button on the website.

This last point needs to be thought out as it is creating an extra layer of
complexity which is not what I am really advocating.  This is a clear
example of where the law and the technology needs to be better debated.

Adrian McCullagh
Solicitor
Freehills

Direct 61 7 3258 6603
Telephone 61 7 3258 6666
Facsimile 61 7 3258 6444
http://www.freehills.com.au

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