Brad,
I am PSRG member, and we have spent lots of time talking with RSADSI folk
over the years, particularly Jim Bidzos, the president. As I understand
the situation, PKP owns the patents, but RSADSI (in which Ron Rivest is a
principal) has the exclusive marketing rights for the patents (RSA,
Diffie-Hellman, etc.).\
The delays have been due to (a) the fact that security products have not
sold and (b) that RSA wants to make money. There has NOT been a robust
market for encryption products, but RSADSI does not want to give it away
either. Now, however, with the explosive growth of networking, I think
that the market will take off. The cost to an individual user will be very
low, depending on how fancy the package, and whether its part of a
corporate or site license, etc. Low two digits per person.
Regards, -Rob-
Robert W. Shirey, The MITRE Corporation, Mail Stop Z202
7525 Colshire Dr., McLean, Virginia 22102-3481 USA
shirey(_at_)mitre(_dot_)org * tel 703-883-7210 * fax 703-883-1397