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RELY
RELY has a special meaning in the CAcert Community and in Certification Authority work, and it therefore needs a special definition. This page is meant to do that, or point to other places where it is better defined.
Definition. To RELY means to make a decision that rests on the information provided to you, typically in a certificate.
In more technical terms, a certificate makes statements or claims to you for the purposes of your RELIANCE. If you use those claims in whole or in part as part of your decision making process, then you are said to be RELYING.
Contract. In this sense, making a decision will typically include some element of risk or liability to you. In order for the Community to permit you to take on that risk and liability, you agree to the CCA.
The CAcert Community Agreement (CCA) is our contract for RELIANCE, and states it this way:
10. "RELY" means your human act in taking on a risk and liability on the basis of the claim(s) bound within a certificate.
In the CCA are mechanisms to identify, control and allocate those liabilities. Especially, you agree to Arbitration as the way we resolve how your RELIANCE is to be dealt with (our means to allocate the liabilities). The CCA also obliges you to take care that is due to the risks you might incur. The whole arrangement makes RELIANCE reasonably safe for the rest of us, and helps our audit process.
Writings. RELY and its variations (RELIANCE, RELYING) and also its siblings OFFER and USE are written in all-caps. This is to indicate that their meanings and usage are always very important and essential to the structure of the system. These words will carry their special meaning when so written, and not their customary day-to-day meaning.
This URL of wiki/RELY can be preserved as a long term pointer for other important documents to point to, reliably.