[8264] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: IBM press release - encryption and authentication
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Honig)
Mon Dec 11 17:57:05 2000
Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.20001211080525.0080b3c0@pop.sprynet.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 08:05:25 -0800
To: Bram Cohen <bram@gawth.com>,
"Paulo S. L. M. Barreto" <paulo.barreto@terra.com.br>
From: David Honig <honig@sprynet.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0012101336520.9932-100000@ultra.gawth.com>
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At 01:38 PM 12/10/00 -0800, Bram Cohen wrote:
>Note to cryptographers of the world - there are two reasons to patent an
>algorithm -
>
>1) to keep anyone else from patenting it and release it into the public
>domain.
>
>2) to keep anyone from using it
>
>If you're not doing 1, you're doing 2.
>
>-Bram Cohen
That's a bit harsh. Cryptographers (are often employed by organizations
that) accumulate patents either to harvest royalties or to trade for other IP
with them.
It is true that patented things are avoided when free alternatives exist;
IDEA lost the popularity it could have gained via PGP's deployment.
