🚀 go-pugleaf

John Garland posts an amusing (to me) "semi-paranoid fantasy" that I'm
an NSA plant, in a passing point. Others have asked in the past what
my affiliations are, and I've answered them once, and haven't wanted
to repeat myself every time another one pops out of the woodwork.

But the amusing thing about John's post is, of course, that if the
fantasy were truly semi-paranoid, a denial from me could not satisfy,
since a semi-paranoid response to that would be "of course he'd say
that if he really were an NSA plant".

For those without paranoid tendencies, and for the last time--I an not
an employee or agent of the NSA, RSA, or anyone else with a vested
interest in this matter. I have had discussions about this via e-mail
with the President of RSA, who has stated his position to me, just as
I have had discussions here with those of opposed positions, both
publicly and privately. 

In my discussions with the President of RSA, I've argued for easing up
the patent-related restrictions on non-commercial use, and I like to
think they played some small role in the very liberal RSAREF license
we now have and in the availability of RSAREF itself. Given that, I
feel an obligation to support the other part of the ethical
"deal"--honoring the terms of that RSAREF agreement, which I regard as
a kind of "social contract" between those who wish to protect RSA's
business interests, and those who wish non-commercial RSA availability
within current U.S. law. As Uri Blumenthal (for example) has
discovered, RSA is acting in good faith in the matter, and some might
argue bending over backwards.

The subject just interests me, that's all, and I come from a position
that the relevant laws are there to protect me, and that the RSA
patentability reflects a "good thing" to stimulate invention and
innovation generally.

My committment to the discussion is based on the principle that
all that is necessary for evil to triumph in the world is for good
men to do nothing--suitably softened to reflect that this is not
an issue of "epic" good and evil proportions, but reflects
(in my view) parallel issues.

Others may disagree, so let's save bandwidth on posts which essentially
say, "I disagree."

David
-- 
David Sternlight
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