-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- RSADSI has been adamantly opposed to Clipper. You'd expect them to be opposed on business grounds; after all, Clipper wouldn't bring them any revenue and could quite possibly put them out of business if other forms of encryption were outlawed. I don't remember seeing many specific comments indicating that RSA was opposed to GAK on philosophical grounds (well, OK; some quotes on their "Sink Clipper" poster, if those count). Other groups were opposed to Clipper because Skipjack is of unknown strength. Putting the cypherpunkesque arguments about how GAK is a big step down the path towards a surveillance state, is it possible that the software GAK (SGAK) scheme could easily incorporate RSA's technology? Imagine: Schlafly et al win their court case, and RSADSI's patents on RSA and other public-key technology are declared invalid. SGAK can thus use RSA without any problem. The "Skipjack, DSS, and SHA may be weak" crowd can't object to RSA's strength, and of course RSADSI will be in no position to object. Another scenario: RSADSI wins and their patent remains valid. They can't refuse licensing to any entity which meets their terms, so SGAK can still be deployed, but RSADSI then gets a royalty. _This_ is what's scaring me. If Microsoft, Apple, et al offer weak encryption as part of SGAK, objections can be made to the weakness. If they use RSA, that avenue is gone. - -Paul - -- Paul Robichaux, KD4JZG | "Information is the currency of democracy." perobich@ingr.com | - some old guy named Thomas Jefferson Of course I don't speak for Intergraph. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBLkemSKfb4pLe9tolAQGYiAP9EEwh/ImtxO6VoeGW6Ur15lwM+eJy9MRR liYk+LMisjfJUwdO7Ngz2EDg/gKWky3u/t2LOm5347tekShXJXEqFqmRlGIt2xu7 8eSMRxRpewYTtYstPWPBaxBe6nzBSfD7BciQseqEU1b6ug21pB53hzHgYP7OwtrY NEZSuas7C9g= =+J/I -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----