[44] in Cypherpunks
Re: Tough Choices
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (peter honeyman)
Fri Apr 30 05:22:12 1993
From: peter honeyman <honey@citi.umich.edu>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1993 00:39:58 -0400
In-Reply-To: greg broiles' message of Thu, 29 Apr 1993 12:02:37 -0700.
in a classic tirade, greg broiles' rants with fever and pitch, comparing
the government's threat to make cryptoprivacy tools contraband and pkp's
very real attempts to do exactly that.
you know what? i agree completely.
i don't plan to stop using pgp. if pkp wants to be reasonable, we can
make a deal. in the meantime, my interest in pgp is research with
no commercial significance. patent courts have long recognized the
validity of experimental use of patented inventions by such researchers.
don't believe me? see rebecca s. eisenberg, "patents and the progress
of science: exclusive rights and experimental use," university of
chicago law review, Vol. 56(3), pp. 1017-1086 (summer 1989).
i suggest cypherpunks should make accommodation with pkp and the patent
office by renouncing commercial exploitation of pgp, and embracing
pgp as a foundation for building and understanding cryptoprivacy tools.
that is to say, we blow them off.
peter
