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[Aldo Foot]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 12:37 PM, Mikkel L.
Ellertson<mikkel at infinity-ltd.com> wrote:
> Steven W. Orr wrote:
>> On 07/13/09 14:21, quoth Mikkel L. Ellertson:
>>
>>> You know, there is a simple fix to this - someone that has G's
>>> public key could upload it to a keyserver. <evil>Now, if someone
>>> wanted to be nasty, they could upload a fake public key with his
>>> email address. Then if there is anything to SPAMmers mining the
>>> keyservers for e-mail addresses, the would get the flood of SPAM
>>> anyway.</evil>
>>
>> Two wrongs don't make a right. Another established part of the etiquette is to
>> never upload someone else's key without explicit permission. Lots of
>> keyservers don't do subkeys and you don't really have the implicit permission
>> to overwrite signatures on those machines. To do so would be at least as rude
>> as not publishing a public key that's needed to verify a signature in a public
>> mailing list.
>>
<...>
>
> As far as uploading a fake key, will interesting to contemplate, I
> wouldn't actually do it. I am just a bit more responsible that that.
>
> Though I am starting to wounder why I adhere to proper net
> etiquette. It seams like fewer people are following it, and if you
> point out proper net etiquette, you get branded a LIST NAZI or TOP
> POSTING NAZI. I guess it is a crime to ask others to be polite and
> follow community guidelines.

This is very true. The truth is that there are those who think there are
(written or not ) rules for a reason, and those who get a kick of breaking
them. It will always be that way.

> My post was half serious, half joking. Kind of a hint about where
> throwing out net etiquette can lead. After all, if all of us decided
> that net etiquette didn't apply to us, then behavior I posted would
> be just as acceptable as G's.

A hint I thought it was. But someone here or there might take the comment
seriously.

I'm actually surprise that we don't see more of this type of issues on this
list. Issues will always arise the moment a direct attack occurs.

~af