Ron said, > While valid claims (decision about trust is made based on logo, etc.), > similar things happen outside of "cyberspace". > A person goes to AT&T store, with a big logo in front, eventually gives > his > credit card information to the person sitting there. That person, maybe an > employee of a dealer / franchise store owner (similar to the Palm case). > Does that person trust the employee? probably not. Does he trust the store > owner? Maybe not. He made his decision based on the logo in front, which > may turn out to be fake.
Absolutely correct; but, why can a person make this assumption? Because the legal system protects AT&T's right to the logo, and AT&T will invest heavily in going after anybody using their logo without authorization or improperly. A very important goal of secure commerce is to provide alternate mechanisms in cyberspace. This is since when a hacker is using AT&T's logo in her website, it may not be feasible for AT&T to sue him (in particular he may reside in places where logos are not protected as well...). Cryptography provides an alternative way to ensure `law and order`, by making reputation a tool for both prevention (you work only with reputable entities) and for reward and punishment (I'll give you a certificate if I'm happy with your work, and create a web site about your lousy service). Cheers, Amir Herzberg See http://amir.beesites.co.il for lectures and notes (draft of chapters) on `secure communication and commerce using cryptography`; feedback welcome! --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]