[OpenID] JanRain library licensing (was: Re: On OpenID 2.0)

[Jonathan Daugherty]

# Users don't choose OpenID implementations. Platform or application
# developers choose them. And they aren't totally stupid. They are
# capable of using Google.

Developers do not always have the time, desire, or skill to verify
that an implementation works as advertised, or that it is compliant
with any version of the spec.  (That would defeat the purpose of
writing and advocating the use of a library.)  It doesn't matter who
makes implementation selection decisions.  Users still have to deal
with the selections made.  Experience tells me that so far, developers
*cannot* be trusted to make the "right" or "obvious" choice, because
that choice is dependent upon so many factors, only one of which is
"which is the most mature library?"  I didn't claim that users are
responsible for choosing implementations: only that users have to deal
with the results of "diversity."

# Generally, it will be completely obvious which implementation to
# pick, since it will be at the top of any Google search, followed by
# things like my imaginary Haskell implementation.

Sure, it will be pretty clear which one is more mature, etc.  That's
*already* true.  And yet, it hasn't stopped broken implementations
from being created or used.

-- 
  Jonathan Daugherty
  JanRain, Inc.
  irc.freenode.net: cygnus in #openid
  cygnus.myopenid.com