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Fw: Re[2]: RC2 Licensing

1997-04-15 13:51:48
This message has been forwarded to you.
 In  SPOCK(_at_)RSA(_dot_)COM writes:

RSA's official position on RC2 is that it is a trade secret and that any
implementation of RC2 anywhere in the world, other than the copyrighted
code in RSA's software toolkits, was derived from RSA's toolkits
illegally (e.g. via reverse engineering or otherwise).

We are working very hard to come up with a licensing scheme that is
acceptable to everyone (an oxymoron of sorts...) for use in S/MIME.
Most of the US e-mail vendors have already licensed this technology so
the issue domestically is fairly moot.  Internationally, we have a much
greater challenge, how to get RC2 technology legally to overseas S/MIME
developers in toolkit form.  Not an easy task.  Suggestions are welcome.

So what about those of us that work on platforms not blessed by RSA? Last I
asked (about HP3000s in particular) RSA's position was that they had no
interest in porting to that platform... and we're not willing to pay $50k(?)
to license source code ourselves to do a port that we'd then have to pay RSA
for the right to use... And we can't "legally" use any "public domain" code...
And just for fun I even asked about paying RSA to port and was told there
weren't resources available to do it even if we (or someone) was willing to
pay to have the toolset(s) ported.

I'm sure there are other platforms that fall into the same boat. I guess that
leaves us stuck with "standards" which we can't legally meet. Wonderful.

                   -Chris Bartram
                    3k Associates, Inc.

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