ietf-smime
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Re: Compressed data type for S/MIME

1999-08-03 13:48:05
EKR <ekr(_at_)rtfm(_dot_)com> writes:

My interpretation of the history is that compression support foundered on 
intellectual property issues. I.e. there was no algorithm which everyone 
could agree was unencumbered. Since there was a desire to get the spec out 
quickly and the issue was sticky, it was punted. I definitely remember 
several meetings of the IPSEC working group where the IP situation was 
discussed and it was distinctly murky.

This seems a bit odd, given that a completely unencumbered algorithm and free
implementation existed years before the web (let alone SSL) did.  There are 
problems with ITU and ISO-standarised algorithms (which seem to exist solely 
to provide patent licensing outlets for vendors, and which in any case tend to
have mediocre performance), but Zip/zlib has never had any problems

Peter.