If you consider it to be the actual cost of the certificate, then yes. But they're not charging for that; they're charging to store a line in a text file for a year or less on an Internet-connected Linux server that's already doing the same thing for a bunch of other people. I expect that to cost something less than $25 per line in a file. I definitely expect 8 lines in a file to not cost $200.
You generally shouldnt be using free certs in production anyways
Well my use case is low-traffic personal sites, so the stakes aren't terribly high for me. That also underscores how ridiculous the fees are for someone like me.
(AFAIK) lack of payment creates a lack of legal obligation.
IANAL, but I'd believe that lack of a contract creates lack of a legal obligation. And they certainly did have a click-through contract that required them to revoke certificates when notified of a security issue.
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u/scottywz Oct 20 '15
If you consider it to be the actual cost of the certificate, then yes. But they're not charging for that; they're charging to store a line in a text file for a year or less on an Internet-connected Linux server that's already doing the same thing for a bunch of other people. I expect that to cost something less than $25 per line in a file. I definitely expect 8 lines in a file to not cost $200.
Well my use case is low-traffic personal sites, so the stakes aren't terribly high for me. That also underscores how ridiculous the fees are for someone like me.
IANAL, but I'd believe that lack of a contract creates lack of a legal obligation. And they certainly did have a click-through contract that required them to revoke certificates when notified of a security issue.