[Foundation-l] identity disclosure and access to OTRS/Checkuser

Sun Jun 29 23:27:19 UTC 2008

Thomas Dalton wrote:
>>> Oh my.  Serious legal consequences for forging such a thing.  I'm
>>> sure the foundation has a method to vet these things.
>>
>> How could they do that? They might be able to tell if the passport is
>> real or not, but there's no way they can tell whether or not it's
>> actually yours.

I can't speak for US passports, or indeed any other than UK, but it's normal 
for to provide some sort of declaration from a doctor, lawyer or priest who 
can certify that they've known the applicant for a reasonable length of 
time. Not completely foolproof, of course, if you've seen "The Day of the 
Jackal", but good enough for normal purposes. I find it hard to believe 
anyone would go to such lengths to gain access to OTRS, however. Checkuser 
may be an entirely different proposition in some of the contexts we have on 
en:Wikipedia, but again, I think it's such a remote proposition as to be 
practically discountable. 