Changing "main" user ID

[Mark Kirchner]

On Friday, September 13, 2002, 7:55:30 PM, David wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 06:38:49PM +0200, Mark Kirchner wrote:
>> [snip]
>> I assume that the "main id" has no particular relevance (for the key /
>> encryption / security) so that changing it would just be a cosmetical
>> thing. Am I missing something?
>
> It is just a cosmetic change, but you are not permitted to make the
> change for keys you do not own.

Uh, yes I got that already :-)

> Only the key owner can decide how their key is displayed.

I hope you don't mind me asking, but: Says who? Of course, the
programmers do, but: Is there a special reason behind it, is it in the
OpenPGP-Standard? Which would lead to the next question: Why is it in
there?
Call me old-fashioned, but: All the necessary data is there, the data
is public (at least it's from the "public" key) and gpg runs on _my_
machine, so IMHO _I_ should be the one to decide how the data is
/displayed/. (Of course, within reasonable limits.)
I don't want to change someone else public key, I don't want to add to
or remove something from it, it's just a matter of how it's displayed
on my machine. (At least I interpreted your "cosmetic change" that
way.)

Regards,
Mark Kirchner

-- 
Key (0x19DC86D3) available: http://www.mark-kirchner.de/keys/key-mk.asc