Encryption--RSA v. PGP

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                      LAA22230
Date:         Thu, 8 May 1997 11:02:39 -0500
Reply-To:     Law & Policy of Computer Communications
              <CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
Sender:       Law & Policy of Computer Communications
              <CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
From:         "Kevin J. Connolly" <kconnolly@EVW.COM>
Subject:      Encryption--RSA v. PGP
To:           CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM

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RSA Data Security, Inc. filed an action in the Superior Court of California,
San Mateo County, against Pretty Good Privacy, Inc.  PGP has been
claiming that its license to distribute RSA-based encryption software is
based on a chain running from Public Key Partners to Viacrypt, Inc.  PGP
acquired Viacrypt, Inc. in January 1996 and has been selling RSA-based
encryption software for commercial use ever since.  The complaint, filed
by Tomlinson Zisko Morosoli & Maser, alleges that PGP's license is
derived from a license to Lemcom, which in turn has been terminated.

This might well mean the end of PGP.  This would certainly be a bad
outcome for security and freedom on the Internet.  I will be following
these developments and report to the list.  It's ironic that RSA is doing this
while complaining about PGP conduct as a freeloader.  I doubt that public
key encryption would be anywhere as notorious as it has become if it
were not for Phil Zimmermannn's crusade; and I haven't noticed RSA
offering to help with Phil's legal expenses.

Kevin J. Connolly
The opinions expressed in this communication are those of the author,
not of Eaton & Van Winkle.
This communication is not legal advice.  If it were legal advice, it would
be accompanied by an invoice.

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-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/

Kevin Connolly <kconnolly@EVW.COM> writes on cyberia-l forwarded to cpunks:
> RSA Data Security, Inc. filed an action in the Superior Court of California,
> San Mateo County, against Pretty Good Privacy, Inc.  PGP has been
> claiming that its license to distribute RSA-based encryption software is
> based on a chain running from Public Key Partners to Viacrypt, Inc.  PGP
> acquired Viacrypt, Inc. in January 1996 and has been selling RSA-based
> encryption software for commercial use ever since.  The complaint, filed
> by Tomlinson Zisko Morosoli & Maser, alleges that PGP's license is
> derived from a license to Lemcom, which in turn has been terminated.
> 
> This might well mean the end of PGP.  

I don't think so.

PGP has been standardising on El Gamal which is not covered by RSA's
patents, for precisely the reason that RSA Inc has a bad record as a
litigious patent worker.  El Gamal is a variant of Diffie-Hellman, and
the patents on Diffie-Hellman are set to expire RSN (later this year,
Sept?)

There is still the putative claim by RSA that they have a blanket
patent covering `any public key system', but it sounds like they are
not relying on this claim here.

I think that the initial PGP products are using RSA, however I
understood PGP is moving to El Gamal, where RSA is due to be relegated
to a `for backwards compatibility only' feature.  This suit will maybe
accelerate this move away from RSA, and perhaps costs backwards
compatibility.

Adam
-- 
Have *you* exported RSA today? --> http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/

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