RE: NEW Data type for certificate selection ?

["Phillip M Hallam-Baker" <pbaker@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Note that I am _not_ advocating roles or authorizations in the 
> certificate.
> I am advocating policies, represented by OIDs, that specify issues like
> acceptable uses of certificates, applicable communities of interest, etc.
> where all subjects, issuers, and authorized relying parties are bound by
> contract to the policy.

A very important distinction. If there is a private agreement to recognize
a particular OID as having a specific semantics the extension is logically
a simple reference to a commonly agreed standard. 

The problem comes in attempting to create public standards for such
agreements ab initio. Clearly private agreements can be widely adopted
and evolve into public standards through use and convention. It is
very hard to invent public conventions however.

You may be interested in the eTerms project of the ICC which is essentially
a third party repository into which terms of this nature can be deposited.


		Phill