* ok.. 1st rough draft (havent even re-read it yet).. i reckon this is the right approach * government regulation of the commercial internet - with PKI to save us ;-) * wont the market dynamics suggest we will want more and more business regulated. CONTENT SEPERATION OF COMMERCIAL CONTENT CONTENT DEFINITION EXTENTION TO X.509/MIME/SMTP/HTML DIGITAL SIGNING OF CONTENT DEFINITITION USER-AGENT RESPONSIBILITIES AND CONTROL COMMERCIAL CONTROL CERTIFYING GATEWAYS WHITE/GREY/BLACK CONTENT REGULATION OF THE COMMERCIAL INTERNET CONTENT SEPERATION OF COMMERCIAL CONTENT ---------------------------------------- THe idea of content seperation, is to seperate all commercial content in forms of advertising from non commercial content. An example of this could be by defining a content type in an X.509 certificate, a new mime type, or an HTML attribute defining it as commercial advertising. CONTENT DEFINITION EXTENTION TO X.509/MIME/SMTP/HTML ---------------------------------------------------- In the use of X.509 certificates, we can define fields that define the content as being a commercial content provider or advertising agent. For SMTP, a certificate can also be provided, or a MIME type used to identity the components of the mail as being an advertisement. HTML can provide an attribute for HREF's defining the content type, or a certificate be used on the referring site. This later use being preferred. DIGITAL SIGNING OF CONTENT DEFINITITION --------------------------------------- The SMTP or HTML provider MUST identify themselves as following these extentions by providing a digital signature of this acknowldegement. This digital signature must also be signed by a CA that is the legal authority of commercial internet regulation for that signature. If the provider does not follow the extentions, then nothing changes. It remains fully backwards compatable. USER-AGENT RESPONSIBILITIES AND CONTROL --------------------------------------- User Agents such as web browsers SHOULD identify their behaviour of filtering or displaying commercial content. This behaviour would normally be defined through a user defined option of ignoring commercial and unsolicited content. The content provider MAY dynamicaly change the content received after identifying the user agent behaviour. This may be for the purposes ot filtering advertisements on the server side, thus reducing bandwidth. COMMERCIAL CONTROL ------------------ The commercial provider may also produce content that requires the user-agent view commercial advertisements. If the user-agent defines its behaviour as not viewing advertising content, the commercial entity may request the user to change this behaviour before continuing. The user-agent MAY chose to accept commercial advertisements for a particular domain. The commercial entity cannot ask for such behaviour over mediums such as SMTP. The commercial entity can only make a request after the user-agent attempts to PULL data from a commercial entity. SMTP can be viewed as a PUSH technology by the commercial entity. -- The spirit of the regulation here, is that an interactive experience of the user allows well defined control over non-solicited commercial content as they entire administrative boundaries of a commercial entity. The user MUST not make more than the absolute minimum number of requests during a session to define its behavior of filtering or non filtering of commercial content. For mediums as SMTP, the process of filtering commercial and non commercial content MUST be fully automated. If a commercial entity is able to circumvent the user's desire of not viewing commercial content, then the regulatory body governing the commercial entity must find the entity of not legally conforming. -- CERTIFYING GATEWAYS ------------------- Gateways may be provided to sign content descrtibing it as residing in an administrative authority that is bound or not bound to commercial regulation. This defines that the content is regulated, even if there is no seperation of commercial content. WHITE/GREY/BLACK CONTENT ------------------------ White content can be viewed as content that has been signed by a commercial entity, and that is also trusted by an authority (eg, local government) that provides a legal framework to support regulation of the commercial internet. Grey content can be viewed as content as defined acknowleding the extentions, but not commercially regulating content. Black content can be viewed as content that is completely unknown. It is not signed. The user-agent MAY chose to filter any content defined as grey or black. GOVERNMENT CERTIFICATE AUTHORITIES ---------------------------------- The digital signatures used in commercial content MUST be signed by a government CA. Thus a legal framework is required for commercial entities on the internet. Thus all commercial entities must register for internet advertising if they intend to have an internet presence. This also allows control over media monoplization. REGULATION OF THE COMMERCIAL INTERNET ------------------------------------- These suggestions are primarily a regulation issue of the commercial internet. It is required to have a legal framework to support it. The government body MAY require a certificate for commercial presence/advertising on the internet to include information as easy business identification (through a number). Persons responsible for the company, including contact information. The certification may also provide simple and automated means to verify the business legitimacy through accessing the government authorities business and consumer website. This allows user-agents to identify business that has been black or grey listed by government authority, and automatically warn the user they are entering or viewing possibly suspect information. -- Silvio