From msuinfo!agate!library.ucla.edu!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!sgiblab!barrnet.net!eit.com!eit.com!not-for-mail Fri Mar 18 17:35:56 1994 Path: msuinfo!agate!library.ucla.edu!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!sgiblab!barrnet.net!eit.com!eit.com!not-for-mail From: ekr@kmac.eit.com (Eric Rescorla) Newsgroups: sci.crypt Subject: Correction: PGP/IDEA licensing Date: 16 Mar 1994 08:13:08 -0800 Organization: EIT Lines: 42 Distribution: world Message-ID: <2m7b6k$a2@kmac.eit.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: kmac.eit.com Shortly after posting the following excerpt from pgpdoc2.txt, I received a letter from Philippe Baumann, the licensing manager for IDEA at Ascom-Tech AG. "There is no license fee required for noncommercial use of IDEA. Ascom Tech AG has granted permission for PGP to use the IDEA cipher, and places no restrictions on using PGP for any purpose, including commercial use." (14-Jun-93 ed) M. Baumann informs me that this statement is incorrect. In particular, he stated that commercial users of PGP must have a license for IDEA from Ascom-Tech AG. M. Baumann writes (in part). "We have never given permission to use IDEA(TM) in PGP for commercial purposes. If you want to use in your office PGP (including IDEA) you can by the commercial version from ViaCrypt. They have an IDEA License and they have the right to sell PGP to commercial users." [M. Baumann has requested that I post this correction and kindly given permission to cite his e-mail.] I wish to stress that ViaCrypt PGP users are completely in the clear, because ViaCrypt has obtained a license for IDEA. Presumably, though, non-US PGP users must make their own arrangements with IDEA. (I assume that any US PGP users who aren't using ViaCrypt aren't worried about patent violations, since it is already a well known fact that PKP claims that PGP infringes on patents on RSA.) Sorry about the screw up folks. -Ekr -- Eric Rescorla DoD #431 ekr@eit.com "I have become comfortably numb"