Mark Brader:
This won't do. But I can see that John's existing man-sized signature
must have unusually high maintenance costs. Maybe we could guarantee
the investment needed to cover them by setting up a, oh I don't know,
let's call it a "public-private partnership"?

Tom Anderson:
Good idea. You can be the Strategic Signature Agency, responsible for
defining the overall direction of the signature, and i'll be OFSIG,
ensuring fair operation of the signature provision market. We'll also need
a Signature Inspectorate, to make sure it meets netiquette standards, and
a body, which i suggest be called Sigdash or Usenet Signature, to handle
the attatchment of the signature to each message. We'll also need a
parliamentary subcommittee to keep everyone on the straight and narrow.

And two or three safety authorities competing to make the most stringent
regulations to make sure that it couldn't harm a fly (while ensuring that
no actual flies come to harm, of course).

Oh, and does anyone actually want to write the signature? Perhaps the best
thing would be if a few people wrote possible signatures,

No, no, they we need a few people to *hire* people to write possible
signatures. People on contract. In Bangladesh.

then licensed
them to people who would actually bid for the signature franchise. That
way, we can have two layers of competition, which should really make
things efficient!

Of course, the people considering the bids must decide on the basis
of how many translations into different EU languages will be provided
as part of the bid, and how elaborate a bureau will be set up to make
excuses for why the new signature must be delayed because they hadn't
had 10 years' warning that an Estonian version would be needed. Not to
mention braille, large-print, and audible versions, labour difficulties,
and leaves on the "-- " line.

Signatures on John's email, as opposed to his news posts, would of course
be handled by a separate set of bodies, although i suggest they are still
subject to OFSIG and SI regulation.

Clearly these bodies need to be nominated by local government, giving
rise to the long-term possibility of controll by a different political
party.
--
Mark Brader | "Oh, especially if it's accurate. There's nothing worse
Toronto | than *accurate*, ill-informed, irresponsible press
| speculation." -- Lynn & Jay: "Yes, Prime Minister"

My text in this article is in the public domain.