> As far as I can see they are totally different. A conventional signature
gives
> some info about titles/phone numbers etc and a PGP signature provides a
method
> of authenticating the sender of a message. It's debatable how well PGP
does
> this outside of closed trust frameworks, in any case I don't see why a
post to
> the piclist should require non-repudiatable authentication of the sender.

Any personal information that the user wishes to share could be posted on
their piclist.com webspace, thus rendering signatures containing personal
information useless.

Authentication on this list is not terribly important, but for some people
can be a force of habit.  For me, I wanted to use the "sign all outgoing
messages" option with the PGP plugin I have.  Sending unsigned mails to the
list means I either have to select the signature option for all non-piclist
email, or deselect the signature for all piclist email.  It's simply easier
for me to send signed emails to the piclist.

As to the reliability of a PGP signature, so long as you have the public key
from a trusted source, or signed by a trusted source, the signature is
reliable.

I, personally, use 2048-bit encrypted email to anyone who can recieve it. I
do this for two reasons:  the first is that I do care a bit about my
privacy, and the second...

There was a rumour a while ago, how true it was, I do not know.  It stated
that the US government was considering declaring encryption a tool that only
terrorists use, and therefore outlawing it.  Also, I remember hearing about
a statement from some branch of the US govornment said that Americans could
not expect privacy in their email.

So, A)  If enough people use encrypted email on a regular basis, then
encryption cannot be declared a tool of terrorists, and B) I don't want
people snooping in my private email.

I know I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but, I think it's healthy to have
some skepticism as to the trustworthyness of email, and PGP gives a good
step in the right direction.

--Brendan

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