Legal implications of a PGP DLL

I know this has been hashed over recently, but I never found out (or don't 
remember) what was decided in regards to the legal implications of a PGP 
functional DLL for Windows.  If a company (i.e. SPRY, wink, wink, nudge, 
nudge.) were to write a PGP DLL and make it publicly available, would that be 
legal?  Viacrypt just straight out charges too damn much to make it worth 
licensing.  So, if a company wants to make it's mail client PGP friendly, but 
not actually supply the encryption algoritm, etc.  Would a DLL be legal if it 
were in the public domain?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INTERNETWORKING THE DESKTOP<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Brad Shantz                      bshantz@spry.com
Senior Software Engineer
SPRY Inc.                        Direct #:     (206)-442-8251
316 Occidental Ave. S.           Main #:       (206)-447-0300
Suite 316                        Fax #:        (206)-447-9008
Seattle, WA 98104                WWW URL: http://WWW.SPRY.COM
----------------------------------------------------------------------
PGP Public Key at:    http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~bal/pks-toplev.html
Or email:             pgp-public-keys@pgp.ai.mit.edu Subj: GET bshantz
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

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On Tue, 13 Dec 1994 bshantz@spry.com wrote:

> I know this has been hashed over recently, but I never found out (or don't 
> remember) what was decided in regards to the legal implications of a PGP 
> functional DLL for Windows.  If a company (i.e. SPRY, wink, wink, nudge, 
> nudge.) were to write a PGP DLL and make it publicly available, would that be 
> legal?

Can't see any reason why not.  The PGP code is freely redistributable,
it's what the recipients do with the patented parts of it that will matter.
e.g. use of the IDEA code in a commercial environment will require the 
users to obtain a licence.

- - Andy

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| Andrew Brown  Internet <asb@nexor.co.uk>  Telephone +44 115 952 0585    |
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From: bshantz@spry.com

   [..] I never found out [...] what was decided in regards to the
   legal implications of a PGP functional DLL for Windows.

If a PGP DLL were rewritten from scratch and placed in the public
domain the only concern would be patent licensure.  By rewriting,
you've removed any sort of copyright issue.

The only was you'd get an RSA license is to use RSAREF.  That means
that use of the DLL would be restricted to non-commercial use.  You'd
also need an IDEA license, but I suspect that if you're just doing
something PGP compatible you'd be able to obtain that, especially
since it would be non-commercial because of RSAREF.

If you need commercial accessibility, you'd need licenses from RSADSI
and Ascom-Tech.  You could then give the DLL away, but RSADSI wants
minimum royalties, so you'd be subsidizing the public.  I don't know
the situation with Ascom.

Eric

From: eric@remailer.net (Eric Hughes)

   The only was you'd get an RSA license is to use RSAREF.  That means

Excuse me.  "The only way you'd get a _free_ RSA license ..."

Eric