Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rice!uw-beaver!cornell!wayner From: way...@CS.Cornell.EDU (Peter Wayner) Newsgroups: sci.crypt Subject: Encryption/ PK Partners and Cash--- COMPROMISE Message-ID: <1991May18.145622.6476@cs.cornell.edu> Date: 18 May 91 14:56:22 GMT Sender: ne...@cs.cornell.edu (USENET news user) Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853 Lines: 43 Nntp-Posting-Host: elli.cs.cornell.edu For now I'm assuming that the RSA patent holds AND that it would be a no-no to post a public-domain program to encrypt using RSA or Rabin. This may or may not be true. The real problem is that PK partners haven't managed to make RSA into an easy-to-use, cheap standard for mail and encryption. That hurts them, because they don't get the piles of cash, and it hurts us because we don't get the advantages of RSA. I've heard talk and talk and talk about schemes they plan to offer to the world, but I've never been offered anything. All this waiting is just a pain and now the Congress is going to make things illegal. I think Mark Riordan is giving them a good chance to change things. PK Partners should offer a license for a small fee, say $2 to $10. I would be quite willing to purchase something that would allow me to use RSA encryption without guilt or legal hassles. It should be a general license that would allow me to use whatever software package I chose. This money would be pure profit for PK partners. They would not have to manufacture software or maintain it. Sure there would be people that would use it without paying, but Microsoft lives quite well with the existance of piracy. I don't really mind paying at all because RSA is the only public-key system that has survived lots of analysis and attention. It was a great piece of mathematics and certainly much more of a breakthrough than say, MS-DOS. There is no reason for all of us to quibble about the legality of patents and all this esoteric-philosophical stuff that puts money in the lawyers' pockets. There is not much time for a compromise. To RSA, I say, "Offer moderately priced, cheap licenses to individuals. Don't worry about piracy. Don't get greedy. Many thin slices of bread is better than one fat loaf." To the rest of us, "Don't begrudge them an honest profit. Don't get caught up in stupid patent philosophisizing." If a general encryption standard is implemented and in use it will be much harder for Congress to make it illegal. -- Peter Wayner Department of Computer Science Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY 14850 EMail:...@cs.cornell.edu Office: 607-255-9202 or 255-1008 Home: 116 Oak Ave, Ithaca, NY 14850 Phone: 607-277-6678
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu! pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!att!ulysses!ulysses.att.com!smb From: s...@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin) Newsgroups: sci.crypt Subject: Re: Encryption/ PK Partners and Cash--- COMPROMISE Message-ID: <14830@ulysses.att.com> Date: 19 May 91 00:58:01 GMT References: <1991May18.145622.6476@cs.cornell.edu> Sender: net...@ulysses.att.com Lines: 12 In article <1991May18....@cs.cornell.edu>, way...@CS.Cornell.EDU (Peter Wayner) writes: > The real problem is that PK partners haven't managed to make RSA into > an easy-to-use, cheap standard for mail and encryption. That hurts them, > because they don't get the piles of cash, and it hurts us because we > don't get the advantages of RSA. Don't forget the Privacy-Enhanced Mail stuff that is based on RSA. Release is very close, and to use it you'll need to buy certificates at $25 for two years, per user. They don't have much incentive to license anyone else at less than that.... Btw, PK Partners holds the patent rights to exponential key exchange, which is used in SunOS. There are *lots* of copies of that around...
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!decwrl!deccrl!bloom-beacon! bloom-picayune.mit.edu!news.mit.edu!jis From: j...@MIT.EDU (Jeffrey I. Schiller) Newsgroups: sci.crypt Subject: Re: Encryption/ PK Partners and Cash--- COMPROMISE Message-ID: <JIS.91May18213125@BIG-SCREW.MIT.EDU> Date: 18 May 91 19:31:25 GMT References: <1991May18.145622.6476@cs.cornell.edu> <14830@ulysses.att.com> Sender: ne...@athena.mit.edu (News system) Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lines: 29 In-Reply-To: smb@ulysses.att.com's message of 19 May 91 00:58:01 GMT In article <14...@ulysses.att.com> s...@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin) writes: Don't forget the Privacy-Enhanced Mail stuff that is based on RSA. Release is very close, and to use it you'll need to buy certificates at $25 for two years, per user. They don't have much incentive to license anyone else at less than that.... The $25 per certificate price is for quantity one obtained directly from RSADSI. Organizations will be able to issue certificates (via a mechanism that provides a "strong" level of security) for their members for on the order of $2.50 per certificate (good for two years). The $25 value should be viewed as an upper bound. One way of looking at the $25 per certificate arrangement is that you are paying some (small) amount of that money for the right to use the technology (say about $2, though I don't have authoritative numbers) and the rest is to recover the cost of offering the logistics of certificate signing. Btw, PK Partners holds the patent rights to exponential key exchange, which is used in SunOS. There are *lots* of copies of that around... I am sure that Sun is paying royalties to Public Key Partners. This shouldn't come as a surprise, I believe part of the price of an Ethenet board is to pay royalties to someone (Xerox?) for the right to use the technology. Disclaimer: I am not a representative of RSADSI nor PKP, however I do work him them (and find them quite reasonable). -Jeff