On Mon, Apr 01, 2002 at 01:00:39PM -0500, Peter T. Abplanalp wrote:
> ok.  just to see how things work, i lsigned the key that i got from the
> keyserver when i opened the email i am responding to.  presumably your
> key and email ;-).  now when mutt invokes gpg, i get the same message of
> "good signature but no validity."  that being the case, what is the purpose
> of lsigning a key?
You might not care about the actual real-world identity of someone; you may
only care to know that two messages from them did, in fact, come from
the same person.  In that case, you don't want to sign the key in a
sharable way, because that certifies the identity associated with the
key; but you can lsign it is an indication to yourself of your
decision to treat the key that way, or just to shut the program up about
the unsigned key.

> so you are saying it is a totally subjective judgement call?  
Yes.

> that means i could sign all the keys i have from this list and
> send everyone a copy back and that would be ok?
Okay from a web-of-trust sense.  Not so okay from a spam-avoidance sense. :)

> somehow i think some people would become angry.  
Most folks wouldn't get angry; they just wouldn't trust your
signature.  Your signature on a key doesn't do the owner of that
key any good unless folks trust YOU to make the right decision
when signing keys.  If you make a habit of signing keys without
verifying the ID, then your signature just becomes worthless.

-- 
Mark REED                    | CNN Internet Technology
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