🚀 go-pugleaf

strnlght@netcom.com (David Sternlight) writes:
> It appears that RSA has had patent protection for about 15 years. Yet
> there are no readily available standard RSA systems for use on Macs,
> nor standard electronic mail packages widely available for purchase
> using RSA (though it is claimed that Apple's OCE will include at
> least message authentication next year).
> 
> I'm curious about what people think about why this is.

Well, let's see.  I believe RSA was developed at MIT, and paid for by the US
taxpayer.  I understand that when it was announced, the US government
attempted to cover up the whole business and bury the technology, but that
they failed because A.K. Dewdney of Scientific American and various other
people mailed out photocopies of the appropriate papers to all and sundry,
having been 'leaked' copies of the articles before or shortly after initial
publication.

I gather that it was then arranged for a series of patents to be applied for
retrospectively.  (That is, I'm told, why the patents are not valid outside
the US; they were applied for after publication.)  These patents were
apparently handed on a plate to PKP, a company which seems to have done very
little other than threaten litigation.

Although they're a completely independent organization, and nothing at all to
do with the US government, PKP seem strangely reticent to license the RSA
patents to ordinary citizens who want to use RSA.  In fact, they refuse point
blank to license the patents to people who want to use PGP.  Odd, eh?

Now, suppose you are the US government, and you want to prevent widespread
usage of public key encryption by the general public.  Suppose your initial
heavy-handed attempts fail, and you don't want to be seen publicly to be
stomping on people's freedoms.  What do you do?  Why, you form a completely
independent (yeah, right) litigation company, hand them a bunch of patents,
and tell them not to license the technology to anyone who might sell products
to the general public.

Paranoid ravings aside, though, there is a general lack of awareness of the
need for encryption technology amongst members of the public.  Many
businesses use fax for confidential financial information; some even do
million-dollar cash transfers on the basis of faxed orders from clients. 


mathew
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