Re: [Sks-devel] Re: Delete key from keyserver

[Johan van Selst]

Yaron Minsky wrote:
> I think it would be a mistake to implement deletion in the way I described
> without some notion of trusted introducers.  And that should I think be
> implemented by having a set of keys that the full network trusts to
> introduce deletions.  As I said, there is real work getting the code to make
> this happen, and also doing the social work of choosing the trusted sources.

I don't think it is hard to come up with a couple of names from the
community of people who can be trusted to do this job. But I'm not sure
that we should push forward with this.

With the power also comes responsibility and a (legal) liability. These
people may be considered accountable (by others) for anything that goes
on in the SKS network. Users mentioning a brand name in a comment field,
an offensive picture with the key, or whatever, just complain to the
'moderators'. To avoid legal claims, and fight battles they cannot
afford to fight (even if winning might be guaranteed), these chosen few
may have to approve a lot of undesired deletion requests, once word gets
out that they can do this.

Being responsible for a large international data network, is quite
something different than being responsible for a single local server
within a clear jurisdiction and some small control over who can access it
(even if it is very rudimentary with a couple of system firewall rules).


Ciao,
Johan

P.S. Yes, I'm probably imagining issues and risks that may never occur.
But we should consider potential future problems and step carefully.

pgpAqSZjByVkX.pgp
Description: PGP signature