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Re: On my HAVAL implementation

1998-04-03 19:12:58
At 03:41 PM 3/30/98 -0300, Paulo Barreto wrote:

   1. Though my implementation is indeed public domain, the very algorithm is
   *not*, as Dr. Yuliang Zheng clearly states in his HAVAL page.  However,
   he's very liberal in conceding "licenses" (in fact, absolutely no fee is
   due; Dr. Zheng only wants to keep track of where HAVAL is being used).
   
I'm a little concerned about this. It is my understanding of copyright law
that one can copyright an *implementation* but not an algorithm. I wrote
Dr. Zheng, and he gave me permission to put it in OpenPGP. However, I am
still concerned about putting in an algorithm that someone claims
"copyright" on. Furthermore, we need an OID for it.

Does anyone have an opinion? Should I strike HAVAL? Should I leave it there
even if it's just a placeholder for later? It's certainly nice to have
extra hash algorithms, but it is by no means something we should delay
over. It can always go in 1.1.

        Jon



-----
Jon Callas                                  jon(_at_)pgp(_dot_)com
CTO, Total Network Security                 4200 Bohannon Drive
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