HELP! Some nut is threatening to sue!

Due to my posts to sci.crypt and elsewhere that I was distributing PGP,
I recieved the following, and after that a very biased textfile on the
dangers of having PGP and how terrible it is.  Can anyone verify that
this is a real threat?  Last I heard PGP *MIGHT* violate a patent, but 
that this had not been decided yet.  Please reply soon, and by direct 
email.  If it is the Real Shit, I don't think they are going to give me
long to ditch PGP...  :(

Begin forwarded msg -----------------------------------------------------

> I don't think you're aware of our position on pgp. Unfortunately, you
> may leave us no choice but to take legal action, which we will unless
> you cease promotion adn distribution of pgp. The next message will
> state our position.

well...
jim bidzos is not SOME nut
and this isnt a threat.. justa warning

the only problem i see with writing an apology note
would be if he didnt send you a letter in the first place
in my youth or if i were basically bored
i would have sent a letter looking like taht
from that account

i would assume its real cuz if someone were to fake it
they would act real mad adn say they are already suing

but i think the fact that you dont know if he really sent you the letter
(well i dont know if he really sent you the letter)
is proof of why we need pgp out in public
because that way we could verify who it was

From: Stanton McCandlish <anton@hydra.unm.edu>
	 Date: Wed, 28 Apr 93 21:31:10 MDT

	 this is a real threat?  Last I heard PGP *MIGHT* violate a patent, but 

PGP does violate patents.  Several people, particularly in the
cypherpunks community, are trying to alleviate the RSA vs. PGP
problem.  The controversy is counterproductive (and all sides seem to
be mostly good guys), so let's not stir the pot further.  Two of the
solutions are 1) PGP could be reimplemented to use RSAREF, and 2)
RSAREF (or something like it) could be extended to include all the
functionality of PGP, but without the patent problems.  (RSAREF is a
copyleft implementation of RSA stuff).

	 From: jim@RSA.COM (Jim Bidzos)

	 I don't think you're aware of our position on pgp. Unfortunately, you
	 may leave us no choice but to take legal action, which we will unless
	 you cease promotion adn distribution of pgp. The next message will
	 state our position.

I encourage you to cease public promotion (because the RSA claim is
legit), and send a message to Jim asking him what you can do to
encourage a freely (and easily) useable and legal general encryption
tool.

dean