[4577] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: idea, cast as used in PGP
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael Motyka)
Fri Apr 30 18:19:40 1999
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 14:42:12 -0700
From: Michael Motyka <mmotyka@lsil.com>
Reply-To: mmotyka@lsil.com
To: Ben Kavanagh <ben@spyrus.com>
Cc: Mike Stay <staym@accessdata.com>, cryptography@c2.net
Ben Kavanagh wrote:
>
> It depends on how the patent is defined. The patent might explicitly
> say used for protecting data on stored media. If you can find a way
> to say you're using it in a way not described by the patent then you
> have a good chance of getting away with it. Bottom line is you have
> to read the patent to see what all are the circumstances it explicitly
> covers. I doubt there is a general "decryption's OK" paradigm in
> relation to crypto patents.
>
The assignee of a patent has make, use and sell rights. To do any of the
three you need a license. I suspect decrypting anything requires make
and use. I doubt there's any easy loophole. CF rockets and export.
