[144132] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Property RIghts in Keys
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven M. Bellovin)
Sat Feb 14 12:57:03 2009
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2009 10:36:36 -0500
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
To: nbohm@ernest.net
Cc: cryptography@metzdowd.com, Ian G <iang@systemics.com>
In-Reply-To: <4996A7AE.3020002@ernest.net>
On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:14:54 +0000
Nicholas Bohm <nbohm@ernest.net> wrote:
> In responding to what Steven M. Bellovin wrote about GeoTrust, I
> mentioned the low UK copyright law requirement for creativity.
>
> As a postscript to that observation, I draw attention to s9(3) of the
> UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988:
>
> (3) In the case of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work
> which is computer-generated, the author shall be taken to be the
> person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the
> work are undertaken.
>
> And s178 provides the definition: "computer-generated", in relation
> to a work, means that the work is generated by computer in
> circumstances such that there is no human author of the work.
>
> These provisions seem to me to work quite aptly to encompass a
> key-pair.
>
As best I can tell, the creativity was by the person who wrote their
certificate software... Besides -- is a certificate a "literary,
dramatic, musical or artistic work"?
In any event, British law doesn't apply; the CPS states that it is to
be interpreted under Virginia, US, law.
--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
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