🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <14818@ulysses.att.com>, smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin) writes:
|> Two more legalistic notes.  First, patents are presumed to be valid.
|> If you're challenging a patent in court, the burden of proof is on
|> you.  Second, *knowing infringement* of a patent is much worse; damages
|> can be doubled or trebled, I believe.  You may or may not like the
|> public-key patents -- but given that letter, if you go ahead and release
|> your system, and if you lose in court, you're liable for serious bucks,

Does the fact that the implementation was to be given away with no thought of
profit affect the infringement?  If I implement RSA without using it, do I
immediately have to start paying royalties?  What if I just send encrypted
messages to myself?  What if I understand the algorithm to the extent that
I can encrypt and decrypt messages in my head?  What if I and a friend can
both do this and speak to each other in ciphertext?

I know that sounds silly, but my point is this: if I use information from the
patent without profiting from it, what grounds are there for suit?
Alternatively, if I set up a royalty deal for some percentage of my profit,
and I make none whatsoever, where's the problem?

-- 
* "In the Spirit as my automatics,  *                              Mike McNally
* Lystra and Zelda were one third   *                                    Coolie
* as large as the infinite Cosmos." *                  DEC Western Software Lab
*              --- D. S. Ashwander  *                       mcnally@wsl.dec.com