Re: SSL is a good thing
StartSSL has recently started to reject requests for Class 1 certs for any website that looks even remotely commercial, claiming that their free product is not intended for commercial use. (They appear to be manually checking sites.) They do have a pay product, but unless you plan to issue multiple certificates for a single domain it's priced higher than most of the competition.
The ultimate solution here is to distribute certificates via DNSSEC and cut the CA's out of the loop entirely, but that's a long way off. And the domain registrars will probably find some way of charging for it anyway, seeing as how many of them are also in the CA business.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
