On Feb 27, 2011, at 10:27 PM, Robert J. Hansen wrote: >> I think we're missing each other here. We have Martin (the real one), the >> fake Martin (let's call him "Marty"), and various other people on a mailing >> list. Martin always signs his messages. One day Marty shows up and tries >> to pretend to be Martin. Martin, not wanting someone else to pretend to be >> him, can easily say: "You're not Martin. I am Martin, and I can prove it: I >> have signed this message with the same key that I've used for all my other >> messages". > > Then we're at an impasse, because that claim wouldn't fly with me. Let's > imagine Fake-Martin and Real-Martin (FM and RM). > > > FM: [message] > RM: Hey, that's not me! I'm me. See? I've signed this with the same cert > I've used for everything else on this list. > FM: No, I'm the real Martin. I didn't sign up for this mailing list until > last week. You signed up here a long time ago and posted messages pretending > to be me, so that when I came on the list you could falsely claim to be me! > RM: But I'm the real Martin! I've been posting here for months! > FM: Prove it. You can't! Therefore, I'm the real Martin. > RM: But you can't prove it either!
I'm not talking about proving who is *named* Martin and who isn't. That's not very important (or doable on a mailing list anyway). What is significant is that the "Martin" that has been posting on the list and signing their messages has a continuity he can point to. If I were Martin, I'd respond: I am the Martin that has been using this mailing list for the past few months. I've had many interesting conversations here, and signed them all. I am signing this message too. I am the same Martin that you all have been conversing with. This man claims to be Martin too. Whether he is or not, *he's not the guy you've been talking to for months*. Or put another way, he's the Martin that they know. There is nothing dramatically new about this idea. It's how nym users have identified themselves for years. David _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
