[118148] in Cypherpunks
Re: Starium's phone encryption
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lazlo Toth)
Mon Sep 20 20:56:57 1999
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In-Reply-To: <19990920192907.CEQR1596@alaptop.hotwired.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 20:31:56 -0400
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Lazlo Toth <lazlototh@hempseed.com>
Cc: Eric Blossom <eb@starium.com>
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Reply-To: Lazlo Toth <lazlototh@hempseed.com>
On or about 3:23 PM -0400 9/20/99, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>I wrote about Starium last month. Check out wired.com.
>
>-Declan
I read your story; it doesn't seem to answer the question I'm asking.
In light of the "modem effect" problem (which was Tim May's only
complaint about his unit in a post to this list dated 7 July), I
would think that the question "Can it become a multi-vendor
standard?" is an obvious one. Perhaps you asked it and the answer
didn't make it into the story?
-Lazlo
>At 13:25 9/18/1999 -0400, Lazlo Toth wrote:
> >I read at <http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG19990423S0015> that, in
> >addition to selling a sub-$100 hardware device, Eric Blossom's
> >Starium <http://www.starium.com> intends to license their algorithm
> >to digital phone manufacturers and is working on a single-chip
> >solution which can be OEMed for analog phones.
> >
> >Does anyone know if Starium intends to release enough details of
> >their algorithm that others could manufacture compatible devices? Or
> >are they planning to use patents to enforce a monopoly or milk
> >licensing revenue from their competitors? (I was unable to find any
> >US patents assigned to Starium or Comsec, though I am not expert at
> >patent searches.)
> >
> >It would be wonderful if this technology became ubiquitous. An open
> >standard unencumbered by IP concerns would help a lot. I understand
> >they use 3DES and Diffie-Hellman, which are both unencumbered,
> >correct?
