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- From: strnlght@netcom.com (David Sternlight)
- Subject: Re: PKP/RSA comments on PGP legality
- Message-ID: <1992Dec13.192149.8211@netcom.com>
- Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
- References: <WCS.92Dec13002027@rainier.ATT.COM> <1992Dec13.063111.26607@netcom.com> <Bz7J39.8tD@acsu.buffalo.edu>
- Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 19:21:49 GMT
- Lines: 26
-
-
- Thanks to the many who clarified my understanding of the legalities
- of this issue, both publicly and privately.
-
- My latest state of understanding (but I'm open to even more) is that
- DES was published. More than that, it's that there's a footnoted
- exemption in the Export List (Commerce Dept.? State Dept.?) for
- technological exports which have been published in scholarly
- journals (the explanation I was given has something to do with
- the conflict between the Munitions Act and the First Amendment).
-
- It's also been claimed by one correspondent that a)IDEA has been
- published and b)the above footnote exemption would mean that
- the IDEA component of PGP wouldn't provide a basis for proceeding
- against PGP under the Munitions Act.
-
- Whether PGP as a whole could be construed as different from its
- ancestral parts (RSA, IDEA) which have been published and are thus
- presumably covered under the exemption footnote is as yet unclear
- to me.
-
- Finally, the issue of PGP being a violation of RSA/PKP's patents
- remains, though the suggestion of an RSAREF version is certainly
- an interesting one.
-
- David
-