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Comment by sarciszewski | Hacker News Reader

Dammit.

No, I mean, this is great news, but I thought I could create value by listing the CAs that provide free SSL on this page: https://paragonie.com/white-paper/2015-secure-php-data-encry...

And soon I won't be. Dammit. And the worst part is, I can't even be angry about that, because it's subverted by a significant security gain.

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>And soon I won't be.

You could pivot to in-depth reviews of the various providers.

I'm sure some providers will be a pain in the backside, some will be great, others somewhere in the middle, and all will have various differing support options, up-sell discounts to "premium" certs and so on and so forth.

That sounds like a great idea for a follow-up page (or alternatively, a great way to get sued for libel).

>a great way to get sued for libel

I'm pretty sure you're saying that with tongue firmly in cheek.

Just in case, though, even in the UK you're covered by fair comment:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_comment

And if I were to ever be brought into court, I would very likely lose more in legal fees than I make in a year, even if I win.

(I'm in America, where going to court and hoping not to end up destitute afterwards means you already lost.)

Goodness, what on earth were you thinking of writing about these providers that'd be so libellous?

;-)

More seriously: by the time you'd become a worthwhile legal target, you'd have to be earning a decent living from your reviews that'd more than cover predatory legal costs.

Given the ridiculous number of review sites out site, and how few of them apparently end up in court, I think you can work out the likelihood of such issues for yourself.

Basically, this is how I look at it.

Increased revenue for writing my opinion on the Internet: Definitely $0

Increased risk of losing everything to the American legal system: non-zero

Hence, I hesitate.

You could try being a Yelp for CAs. The exemption for letting other people write their opinions on the internet is pretty ironclad [as long as you honor DMCA notices].

That would be a clever workaround. I'll consider that. :)

Good luck :)

Just be careful and look through the lawsuits Yelp got hit with so you don't get accused of extortion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/02/yelp-extortion-case...

At least to me, it seems the simplest solution is to only sell advertising via a 3rd party bidding system where you aren't involved in the sales process and don't initiate contact. [i.e. Moderation of ads is handled by the 3rd party, not you ]

> Increased risk of losing everything to the American legal system: non-zero

Nah. The worst that will happen is you'll get a letter from a lawyer demanding you take it down. It will be a completely fake letter, with zero basis in law, but if you are worried you can take it down at that point at no monetary cost to you.

Make yourself easily contractible to encourage early contact.

You can also make a way for them to submit a rebuttal that you'll post, that works too.

A lot of states have anti-SLAPP laws that make it much harder for big companies to throw their weight around to legally intimidate legitimate critics, so it might not be as bad as you think:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_publ...

On the phone I once said, "In my opinion he is dishonest". I was sued in US District court. In total it cost me $3,000 and I got off easy.

My attorney thought I might win the case but a single day of court would cost $6,000 at the time. I settled.

Yeah, I don't have $3,000 to burn, otherwise I would have a mode of transportation that doesn't consist of:

    - walking
    - asking a friend to drive me somewhere

I've long had the idea of hosting a site for product reviews of enterprise software. There's so much shitty software produced by big vendors and IT managers keep buying them. I'd love to right this wrong, but the threat of libel scares me. The biggest vendors spend all their money on sales and lawyers.

You should possibly point out that the first entry on your list is done by "acceptable MITM" - and that you don't control the keys there.

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