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From: gordon@sneaky.UUCP (Gordon Burditt)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin,comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: Passing proprietary messages through competitors or other sites
Message-ID: <35488@sneaky.UUCP>
Date: 30 Jul 90 18:04:03 GMT
References: <12687@netcom.UUCP> <6iZZm1w162w@cds1.UUCP> <1990Jul29.232029.27159@zoo.toronto.edu>
Followup-To: news.sysadmin
Organization: Gordon Burditt
Lines: 25

>>There's only one drawback -- encrypting, decrypting, and generating RSA
>>keys takes a long time...
>
>There is another:  RSA is patented in the US, and the patent owners are 
>actively defending it against infringement.  (There is *no* "fair use"
>exemption for patents, so it does not matter what you are using it for,
>by the way.)

Is there any legit way to use RSA?  Assume two dozen people who have no
affiliation with any government, cannot positively prove they are not
Drug Dealers (tm), and live in the USA want to use RSA to communicate.  
Assume one of them has written a program to implement RSA.

Now, does there exist a method by which these people, with their hands
out offering the price of an IBM PC each to anyone (RSA Data Security?) who 
can legitimize their use of their own program, can be licensed to use RSA 
in a reasonable time (e.g. 30 days) without running out of the money on 
legal fees or NSA paperwork or lawsuits?

Is the RSA key distribution scheme described in RFC 1113-1115 real and
in operation, or is it someone's pipe dream that the NSA will never permit
to exist?

						Gordon L. Burditt
						sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon