RE: ACTION-13: Elaborate on multiple certificates & domains for session servers case

Including the term "legal entity" is needlessly confusing, since I want
users to be able to authenticate any entity they interact with over the
web. I'll rephrase. See:

http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/wiki/ActionNumber13

Tyler 

-----Original Message-----
From: public-wsc-wg-request@w3.org [mailto:public-wsc-wg-request@w3.org]
On Behalf Of Michael(tm) Smith
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 4:07 PM
To: public-wsc-wg@w3.org
Subject: Re: ACTION-13: Elaborate on multiple certificates & domains for
session servers case


"Close, Tyler J." <tyler.close@hp.com>, 2006-11-20 21:52 -0600:

> For ACTION-13: Elaborate on multiple certificates & domains for 
> session servers case
> 
> A user has a relationship with a legal entity like a person, or a 
> company, not with a domain name.
[...]

Just as a point of clarification: I don't know if a person is normally
considered a "legal entity" in the way the word is used in law. In the
way I usually see it used a least, "legal entity"
most often refers to an organization that's recognized by a government
as having some legal existence as an individual entity; basically, a
corporation (or equivalent of a corporation in whatever jurisdiction
that organization is recognized in).

In that sense, there are some classes of businesses that are not
government-recognized legal entities: sole proprietorships,
partnerships, and other kinds of unincorporated organizations.
They aren't really true companies in the sense that they can be
separated from the people running them -- they're simply a person or
persons "doing business as" as a certain name.

It may be an important distinction to make in security discussions,
because with regard to fraud protection, if there is a need to
identify/verify the association between organization and the business
name and domain name that it uses, the existence of the business as a
corporation (or similarly government-recognized legal entity in a
particular jurisdiction) provides a clear way to do that (which
existence as a sole proprietor or partnership does not).

  --Mike

Received on Tuesday, 21 November 2006 18:28:35 UTC