Bob> The question should be whether they want or expect to impose
liability on someone else if that person signs a document and later
tries to disavow it.
Of course many people want more liability for the other guy. But when you
increase everyone's liability, you increase your own. The three listed
choices of privacy, trust, and liability came from a message of yours.
Do you have an application in mind for PEM where you would sign
something (using your real name, not a Persona - I understand the
utility of a signed pseudonym) but not want it to be binding in any legal
sense?
Almost any non-contractual communication falls into that category, such
as the messages on this list. We also all sign personal letters to
friends with no expectation that it's a legally binding document. Of
course courts sometimes decide otherwise, but that is seldom the intent
of the writer. Forcing the assumption of legal liability will make people
far less willing to speak their minds. We very badly need that
willingness to speak freely.
Doug Porter