Re: [Sks-devel] Displaying user images on index page

[Sacha J. Bernstein]

Even if we didn't display the images in SKS, you could make the argument 
that we're still storing and propagating an unknown image.  Personally, I 
think it would be reasonable to display images within the recommended size 
(whatever GPG and PGP report), and perhaps have the ability for the admin 
to disable image generation on a keyserver by keyserver basis.

Unfortunately, PGP keys can be used for a number of purposes they were not 
intended, and the keyserver network provides a distribution path for that 
data.  I could for example just as easily embed copyrighted literature, 
software, or music into my PGP key if I wanted to.  PGP keys already 
provide a database of probably-valid email addresses to send unsolicited 
mail to, but thankfully, I don't think the types of people that do that 
have realized that yet.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that while displaying images could be a 
problem, it doesn't appear that anyone is abusing it right now, and by just 
not displaying the image, I don't think it solves the problem (or any of 
the other potential problems) since it's still embedded in the key we 
distribute.  So I think we should display or not display the image based on 
other reasons, such as technical difficulty, desirability by users and 
keyserver admins, and compatibility with existing software.

Just my opinion....  feel free to ignore it :-)


Sacha



--On Wednesday, February 25, 2004 7:47 AM -0500 "Yaron M. Minsky" 
<address@hidden> wrote:

> I actually no longer think this feature is such a great idea.  It was
> pointed out to me privately that it could give, erm, unsavory types a
> place to store images for public consumption.
>
> I suppose it might be safe if SKS put a strict upper limit on the
> thumbnail size... so maybe this idea is salvageable.  Any thoughts?
>
> y
>
> On Tue, 2004-02-24 at 22:18, Yaron M. Minsky wrote:
> > I've heard some requests for the ability to display the actual picture
> > associated with the user attribute packet.  Is the contents of the user
> > attribute packet standardized enough for this to make sense?  How does
> > it work?  Is it always just a JPEG file?
> >
> > The real annoyance in implementing this feature is that there's no way
> > (at least, none I know of) to have the jpeg be part of the body of the
> > HTML file.  Instead, I need to have a link to a URL that is used for
> > fetching the image.  It's hardly impossible, but it does make it more of
> > a pain to implement.  I guess I mention this only in the hope that
> > there's something I'm missing, and there is an easy way of embedding a
> > jpeg into the body of an HTML page.
> >
> > y
> --
> | --------/            Yaron M. Minsky              \--------|
> | --------\ http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/yminsky/ /--------|
>
> Open PGP --- KeyID B1FFD916
> Fingerprint: 5BF6 83E1 0CE3 1043 95D8 F8D5 9F12 B3A9 B1FF D916
>
>
>
>
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