[DotGNU]login service slamming

[Ron Burk]

> The only thing that I want to ensure is that they can't use our own work
> (outside of the spec) against us.  All specs should be open for
> anything.  All code, however, is a creation that should be held closely
> to the intentions of the original author.

What about all data? How about if Microsoft modifies their
Passport SDK, so that Passport-enabled servers now
also suck the personal data out of any end-users
who happen to be using dotGNU-based single
logon products and put it into the Passport database?
Since they control the browser, it's conceivable that they
could create a completely transparent form of "slamming",
in which people who thought they were using a dotGNU
single logon system have been silently converted to Passport,
and now their data resides on centralized Microsoft
servers in addition to the original database location
that the end user selected. (I'm thinking only of the
proposal being developed at address@hidden, for
which I see no technical difficulties to implementing such
slamming -- nor can I see any strictly technical
barriers that could be erected to stop it.)

"all specs should be open for anything" would seem to
indicate that such slamming is perfectly acceptable,
in which case, the dotGNU specification may be a convenient
way for Microsoft to acquire new Passport users and
little threat to them (since they have no compunction
to make their specs open, and can prevent any slamming
in the opposite direction).

Is slamming important to try to prevent? I'm not sure that
AT&T feels "validated" when their customers get
slammed over to MCI :-). I bet they would feel even
less so if a proprietary spec eliminated the possibility
that slamming would ever occur in the reverse direction.


Ron Burk
HighTechInfo.com, www.hightechinfo.com