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- Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!eff!news.oc.com!convex!gardner
- From: gardner@convex.com (Steve Gardner)
- Subject: Re: RSA sucks (Re: PGP warning (ooo; I am scared))
- Sender: usenet@news.eng.convex.com (news access account)
- Message-ID: <1992Dec27.210148.9265@news.eng.convex.com>
- Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 21:01:48 GMT
- References: <1992Dec22.172755.6937@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> <4336@novavax.UUCP> <1992Dec27.180042.7620@netcom.com>
- Nntp-Posting-Host: imagine.convex.com
- Organization: Engineering, CONVEX Computer Corp., Richardson, Tx., USA
- X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
- Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
- not necessarily those of CONVEX.
- Lines: 21
-
- In article <1992Dec27.180042.7620@netcom.com> nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) writes:
- >mitch@novavax.UUCP (Mitch Silverman) writes:
- >>>Please let him know how you feel about the theft of mathmatics (sic) by the
- >>>patent office.
- > Why so down on RSA getting their patent? Public-key cryptography
- >was a major invention. Before Rivest, Shamir, etc. invented it, it was
- >generally thought to be impossible. It was a real invention, not something
- >obvious that slipped past the PTO, like the XOR-draw patent, or something
- >that ought to be an antitrust violation, like the way Hayes uses its
- >patent on "+++" as an out-of-band signal to modems.
- It's not that RSA is more evil than any other software patent holder.
- It's that software patents as a legal concept are an ill-considered
- creation of people who do not understand either mathematics or
- software. It is a wrong headed concept and people like RSA should
- not exploit an obviously intellectually and morally bankrupt system
- for private gain. They *do* understand both software and mathematics
- and are therefore more accountable for supporting a bad system.
-
-
- smg
-
-