Re: What the NSA is patenting

>(Used to be they just kept stuff secret; now they patent some of it.)
>
>United States Patent                   Patent Number:  5264794
>                                       Date of Patent: 23 Nov 1993
>
>Method of measuring magnetic fields on magnetically recorded media using a
>scanning tunneling microscope and magnetic probe
>
>Inventor(s):  Burke, Edward R., Silver Spring, MD, United States
>              Mayergoyz, Isaak D., Rockville, MD, United States
>              Adly, Amr A., Hyattsville, MD, United States
>              Gomez, Romel D., Beltsville, MD, United States
>Assignee:     The United States of America as represented by the Director,
>              National Security Agency, Washington, DC, United
>              States (U.S. government)
 
That isn't NSA research, it was merely sponsored by the NSA.  Those are all
university people who have published their work on MFSTM in journals, papers,
and theses (I used some of it in my paper at the Usenix Security Symposium, and
two of the images in my talk were provided by one of Mel Gomez' students). 
What the NSA is doing in this area is still classified (although I suspect the
techology isn't much different from what's publicly available), in this case
all they were doing was protecting their investment (just like the various PKC
patents originally assigned to universities).
 
Peter.

On Sat, 7 Sep 1996 pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz wrote:

> >United States Patent                   Patent Number:  5264794
> >                                       Date of Patent: 23 Nov 1993
> >
> >Method of measuring magnetic fields on magnetically recorded media using a
> >scanning tunneling microscope and magnetic probe

> techology isn't much different from what's publicly available), in this case
> all they were doing was protecting their investment (just like the various PKC
> patents originally assigned to universities).

I'm sure there's going to be a REALLY marketable device out of this to 
get royalties off of.

Don't be ridiculous. This is obviously a case of "my ass is protected 
more than yours so i can do anything *I* damn well please, but you are 
screwed."

Question: if we pay taxes, then we pay for the research. if we pay for 
the research, we should be able to see the results, just like 
shareholders in a company.

-Millie, future CIA capo^H^H^H^Hagent
sfuze@tiac.net