🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1398@eouk9.eoe.co.uk> ahaley@eoe.co.uk (Andrew Haley) writes:

>Yes, IDEA has a 128 bit key.  It's rather beautiful algorithm,
>involving multiplications mod 65537 (which is prime, so the
>multiplications are invertible because every number (except zero) has
>an inverse mod a prime), additions mod 65536, and XORs.  These
>operations are combined in a network which thoroughly scrambles the
>data.  There are no table lookups or bit permutations at all.
>
>BAD NEWS: It's PATENTED.  Not just in the USA but in Europe as well.
>If enforced, this patent will probably prevent the widespread adoption
>of this algorithm.  A great shame.

However the patent owners, Ascom-Tech AG, are being very reasonable about
the patent (totally unlike PKP).  They let us use it in PGP without having
to pay any license fees since PGP is free, and are very approachable about
it's use in other programs.  Still, I ended up not using it in my PGP-compatible
archiver since I have a religious thing about patents - however, IDEA is a very
good cipher and the way the patent is being administered is one of the more
enlightened I've seen.

Peter.