On Sat, Mar 08, 2003 at 07:07:18PM +1300, Peter Gutmann wrote:
Werner Koch <wk(_at_)gnupg(_dot_)org> writes:
Implementing IDEA is trivial but as it is now, it is not possible to use any
software without paying royalities to Ascom.
I've been using it for years without paying royalties to Ascom, and so has
most of the rest of the PGP-using world. It's only if you're selling it for
more than $10K (from memory) that you need to talk to Ascom.
Actually, it's far worse that this. I exchanged some E-Mail with
Richard Strab, the CEO of MediaCrypt, (the license vendor for Ascom) and
he made it quite clear that their definition of "commercial users" included
any and all non-profit organizations and anyone who was not using it for
personal individual use (and even personal use was not acceptable if you
were using it to communication with a "commercial" entity, even if that
entity was a non-profit professional organization or your church or your
school). If you root around MediaCrypt's site you eventually find their
draconian definition of what they feel constitutes commercial and
non-commercial and, for the life of me, I can't find much that they
CAN'T construe to be commercial and demand royalties. You end up looking
for a really tiny needle (non-commercial) in a really broad and hazy
haystack (commercial).
From what I understand exchanging mail with some of my professional
counterparts at some universities, a number of universities already have
blanket licenses negotiated and paid for. Their use is covered, NOT because
it's non-commercial but, because they already paid for their organization's
license.
Peter.
Mike
--
Michael H. Warfield | (770) 985-6132 | mhw(_at_)WittsEnd(_dot_)com
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