Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!xanth!rlb
From: rlb@cs.odu.edu (Robert L. Bailey)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: rumor: LZW patented by Unisys
Message-ID: <10181@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
Date: 13 Oct 89 03:55:47 GMT
References: <942@mountn.dec.com>
Reply-To: rlb@cs.odu.edu (Robert L. Bailey)
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va.
Lines: 17

In article <942@mountn.dec.com> rothstein@bcse.Enet.DEC.com (Lee Rothstein, 603-881-0771) writes:
>..
>
>If academically published algorithms are available for "open"
>implementation then why/how has RSA held public key cryptography
>"hostage."
>

Primarily because cryptography is deemed a security item.  Anytime
something is regarded as related to national security, the lid gets
slammed shut.  Highly advanced cryptography algorithms might allow
some foreign power to learn how to decode classified (i.e. encrypted)
messages, etc.  (As if they haven't figured it out already :-)

Bob Bailey
Unisys Defense Systems
rlb@cs.odu.edu