[cabfpub] Draft Ballot 185 - Limiting the Lifetime of Certificates

Robin Alden robin at comodo.com
Fri Feb 3 09:20:34 UTC 2017


Gerv said..
> There seems to be a lot of confusion in this thread between correlation
> and causation.
> 
> While avoiding discussing what the prices actually are, I would note
> that unless there is no price advantage either way, the distribution of
> certificates among different term lengths is likely to be a function of
> price as well as anything else. So it's not reasonable necessarily to
> conclude that customers "prefer" or "need" _longer_ certs; they might
> just "prefer" _cheaper_ certs :-)
> 
We are not trying to prove a prepositional logic problem.  We are discussing the real world.
Your careful wording suggests to me that you already appreciate that there are multiple factors at play.

> In other words, you can't reason from e.g. "customers buy 3-year certs"
> to "customers need/prefer 3-year certs" unless there is no price
> advantage in the system you are studying.
>
One can reason that it is very likely to be a factor, and I would argue a strong one.
You cannot use the fact that a bulk buy attracts a discount, coupled with an inference drawn from the aether that all customers are motivated solely by price, to unequivocally deny that the popularity of 2 or 3 year certificates suggests that there is a demand for certificates valid for > 13 months.

Besides that, for some customers who buy from us in bulk volume the price per year is exactly the same whether they get a 1 year certificate or a 3 year certificate.  They still find 3 year certificates attractive.

Regards
Robin Alden
Comodo




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