[1292] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: ciphers - patented then 'released'
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Donald E. Eastlake 3rd)
Thu Jul 31 11:23:33 1997
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 10:41:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Donald E. Eastlake 3rd" <dee@cybercash.com>
To: Rodney Thayer <rodney@sabletech.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <3.0.2.32.19970730203941.007cda00@pop3.pn.com>
I think it was a condition of being adotped as the Federal Standard that the
algorithm be freely usable and IBM just included a letter to that effect with
its submission to the NBS. Patenting something and then allowing free use
has the advantage that its makes it hard for someone else to patent it.
Donald
On Wed, 30 Jul 1997, Rodney Thayer wrote:
> Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 20:39:41 -0400
> From: Rodney Thayer <rodney@sabletech.com>
> To: cryptography@c2.net
> Subject: ciphers - patented then 'released'
>
> I gather DES was originally patented (by IBM?). Now some people are
> looking at CAST, which is apparently patented but being freely shared by
> Entrust. Does anyone know where there are references to the DES patent,
> and/or discussion of it's being released for use without a fee?
>
> What I'm looking for is documentation to show CAST is freely usable, and as
> a comparison I am wondering what was done to make DES freely usable.
>
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