Gathering session cookies with Firesheep

Certs don't "cost $$ for no good reason". If all you want is a Domain Verified cert, get one from StartCom for free. And if you want an EV cert, the CA has to do a load of checks (see cabforum.org for the document listing them all) and that costs money, so you should expect to pay. Any CA can sign up to issue them, with the relevant audits, so it's not a closed market and there is competition.

Gerv