Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site petrus.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!bellcore!petrus!karn From: karn@petrus.UUCP (Phil R. Karn) Newsgroups: net.crypt,net.legal Subject: Re: RSA cryptographic algorithm patented? Message-ID: <405@petrus.UUCP> Date: Wed, 17-Jul-85 02:05:00 EDT Article-I.D.: petrus.405 Posted: Wed Jul 17 02:05:00 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 18-Jul-85 05:39:57 EDT References: <9028@ucbvax.ARPA> <3154@cornell.UUCP> Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc Lines: 20 Xref: watmath net.crypt:411 net.legal:1837 Along the same lines, IBM holds patents on DES. It is claimed that they will grant royalty-free licenses to anyone wishing to manufacture chips conforming to the standard. A few thoughts come to mind: 1. To formally adhere to DES (i.e., to gain a certification from NBS), you have to implement the algorithm in hardware on a special-purpose chip. General purpose computer software implementations are not certifiable. I've never understood this requirement, except to note that a hardware implementation seems to be related to the test for patentability. 2. IBM is not widely known to cheerfully give away things for free. In fact, this is so out of character for them that one almost wonders if they have an ulterior motive to promote widespread usage of DES (I think you can guess what it might be.) Or, more charitably, perhaps they realize their patent on the "algorithm" itself could never be defended anyway, so they hope to gain some public good will out of it. Naturally, the above are strictly my personal opinions. Phil