Gentle Interfolk:
This discussion on naming seems to revolve around the Distinguished
Name (DN) being taken as a name. Of course it is no such thing.
The DN is an address for delivery of electronic mail and serves no
other purpose. The Internet DNS performs pretty much the same thing.
I now have at least three ways that people can reach me over the
internet, and others thru various BBS's here and there. Each of
these has required me to have a different "name".
If I am to "own" a private/public key for use in PEM (RSA) signing, and
another private/public key for use in DSS signing they might not be
able to have the same DN's on any network and I may still need to
to have other name/address pairs for use on nets with odd naming
conventions. When I use same key in private correspondence with a
domestic CA that I use for business use with my company's CA, I do not
change, nor does my key change. The point is that the DN is not me,
and that I will surely need multiple DN's in the brave new internet.
I am more concerned with the ownership of my key. If my company issues
me a badge with my name and picture on it and my key inside it, who
owns the badge, me or my company? If my company chooses to "recover"
their property and my key is inside it, do I have the right to destroy
my key before they get possession of it?
I personally "own" my signature in the sense that only I can legally
use it. Will I own my digital signature?
Peace
Tom Jones - Lemcom