[caops-wg] Version 06-09 of the OCSP document.

[Mike Helm]

I think it is a mistake to equate "relying party" with "client".
These are two different concepts, and the first term is relatively
poorly understood among computer professionals (or at least unfamiliar
to many of them), while the 2nd isn't.

Anyway, back to the difference.  A relying party relies - it acts on 
some assertion.  A client consumes - it just takes the stuff 
it gets from the big producer (the server).   There are times 
when we are clearly talking about an OCSP info consumer and not
talking about the decision that the underlying system will make
based on that OCSP info.  Also, it is somewhat inappropriate to
describe the OCSP client as the relying party, since the RP
can chose to ignore the information if it needs to, based on
some other criteria.