[1493] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Netscape SSL Patent
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lyle Seaman)
Mon Sep 15 14:53:58 1997
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 13:01:24 -0400
To: cryptography@c2.net
From: Lyle Seaman <lws@transarc.com>
I'm not entirely sure what this patent covers (I'm pretty baffled by most
software patents I see these days -- it looks like people are trying to
patent sunshine, or air) and I can't manage to grab the whole thing from the
uspto.gov web site.
In 1987, I fixed a few bugs in a commercial network protocol for
minicomputers, which did the below. I believe it was originally written
around 1981, was marketed to the public, sold pretty well, and these
features were documented in the manual.
The encryption algorithm was pretty weak, but that doesn't seem to be relevant.
>> 3. A method of encrypting and decrypting information
>> transferred over a network between a client application
>> program running in a client computer and a server application
>> program running in a server computer, the method comprising:
>>
>> providing a socket application program interface
>> to an application layer program;
>> [*] providing encrypted information to transport protocol
>> layer services;
>> encrypting information received from an application
>> layer program; and
>> decrypting information received from transport protocol
>> layer services.
