[7420] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Has RSADSI Lost their mind?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Meyer Wolfsheim)
Mon Jul 3 17:47:35 2000
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2000 15:14:16 -0400 (EDT)
From: Meyer Wolfsheim <wolf@priori.net>
To: Dave Del Torto <ddt@openpgp.net>
Cc: Lucky Green <shamrock@cypherpunks.to>, ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk,
cypherpunks@openpgp.net, cryptography@c2.net,
CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM, linux-ipsec@clinet.fi
Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007031502560.57413-100000@mesozoic.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> I'd have to agree. For anyone who's unaware, RSADSI resorted to
> "interesting" legal practices in order to strategically destabilize
> PGP Inc at a difficult time in it's history (immediately pre-NAI,
> ostensibly to prevent further rounds of venture capital from keeping
> PGP in business). They claimed (through special-purpose legal
> respresentatives, who did not consult Cylink, which was still legally
> RSA's PKP partner) before taking unilateral legal action, that we
> (PGP) had "not paid royalties" when we had the cancelled checks to
> show we had, begrudgingly, done so as required. They also tried to
> circumvent the license agreement's very clear mandate on arbitration
> in order to drag things out while PGP continued to search for
> additional investors. This rather transparent strategy was widely
> interpreted (and IMHO correctly) as plain and simple revenge for the
> slick reverse triangular merger we engineered with ViaCrypt in order
> to gain unfettered use of the algorithm for PGP 5.x+. We pissed off
> RSADSI (read: Bidzos) and they played as dirty as they could to
> strike back. NAI now owning PGP is proof that such tactics can
> succeed.
Phil Zimmermann to this day refuses to sign RSA PGP keys. When asked why,
he tells the story of how Bidzos recommended to the Commerce Department
that Phil be arrested on ITAR violations. Talk about extreme measures to
obtain a competative advantage...
RSADSI realizes that its days are numbered. Here is a clear case of not
planning for the future. RSADSI has existed and thrived based on the
royalties from its patents. Patents, however, expire...
Come September 20th, I think that RSADSI is going to be in more than just
a shitload of trouble. No one will use their products, either out of
principle (from what Dave states above, I figure that NAI/PGP will be one
of those), for technical reasons (there are better RSA implementations
than BSAFE. If they can't even make the best RSA implementation, what
does that say about their programming abilities?), or for cost reasons
(why pay for something when you can get it for free/less money?)
RSADSI should have been reinventing itself all along. Instead, it has been
the Rivest Patent House Gestapo. Look where that's gotten it...
Good riddance, RSADSI.
- -MW-
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.1 (FreeBSD)
Comment: No comment.
iQEVAwUBOWDmESsFU3q6vVI9AQHD2Af/drI933XZRmSJRrgYSdbrUPsMJdYMJbnC
EFlGXbxCk5GddUr59GSQOsP+D3vQHXTnkkEwolrhrvZZN8LBfGsy5v+h7f3Az+/M
s5xhCYlF31oCKPv+AJuXF9R25c/tvgYK2VZDdZqBBDRxPrTWKn/tIUwVOQEXXRd+
/yp3Ldgdy2HdDMbXE3opnkVFaqIa2jR5IM6/WyXlzXT6ZsgdMkHaI+cN9I00y3Kn
i62wH7FLs1b5Te8TxevQmYRqrk7iUQQV6P3FweyoJrHv9VvFcctj2JcTAVcTFo/v
zrru9gbMVJa7+5JHwSC9EI7xUXO5CJ/MpBCQqm4wOzJVroaLDc0aVQ==
=KRpF
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
