[109581] in Cypherpunks
Re: P1363: Biprime Cryptography to replace RSA?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (William H. Geiger III)
Tue Mar 30 10:35:52 1999
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 10:14:59 -0500
From: "William H. Geiger III" <whgiii@openpgp.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <cypherpunks@openpgp.net>
Reply-To: "William H. Geiger III" <whgiii@openpgp.net>
In <v03130300b326854428c8@[24.128.119.92]>, on 03/30/99
at 09:45 AM, "Arnold G. Reinhold" <reinhold@world.std.com> said:
>At 5:27 PM -0800 3/29/99, John Gilmore wrote:
>>>
>>> Security Dynamics Technologies, Inc. has sent a letter to the P1363
>>> working group regarding trademark protection of the RSA name. The letter
>>> is now available from our patents page
>>> http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/1363/patents.html
>>> or directly at
>>> http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/1363/letters/SecurityDynamics.jpg
>>
>>Now that their patent is getting ready to expire (next fall), RSA is
>>trying to crack down on anyone who refers to the use of the
>>algorithm by calling it "RSA". They don't mind if you call it "type
>>1" or something else meaningless and irrelevant, though. This is a
>>new low for a company known for self-serving legal bluster.
>>
>....
>>
>>Perhaps we should have a little contest for what to call the RSA
>>algorithm, given RSA's objection to calling a shovel a spade.
>>
>I too have problems with Security Dynamics's attempt to prevent use of
>the term RSA to describe what everyone calls RSA cryptography. I also
>question their legal right to recend the written permission they granted
>to use the name, which permission the IEEE P-1363 committee has already
>relied on at considerable expense. The committee should consult a lawyer
>on this (I am not one).
>However, if Security Dynamics is taking that attitude, it might be
>desirable to agree on an alternative generic name. "Type 1" is
>unacceptable, both because it is too cryptic and because the NSA already
>uses it to refer to algorithms approved for protecting classified
>information.
>I would propose "Biprime Cryptography" or "BPC" as the generic term for
>RSA. Biprime is a natural and appropriate English name for the product of
>two primes. Compare it with bicycle, biped, or bifocal. Biprime
>Cryptography sounds distinctive and is somewhat self-explanitory. It also
>leads to simpler language for discussing the algorithm's components. One
>can talk about someone's public BPC key as their public biprime or just
>their biprime. Their secret BPC key could also be their secret biprime
>factor or just their secret factor. The underlying security rests, in
>part, on the difficulty of factoring biprimes. And so on.
>If RSADSI no longer wishes the public to honor their founders, we might
>as well choose a descriptive name.
I have an even better solution: don't use the RSA algorithm or any other
algorithm from RSADSI. Let them be assholes all by themselves while the
rest of us make use of other algorithms that are not encumbered with their
bullshit.
--
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