Patents would not have prevented the Russians from using RSA, nor any other foreigners, so as far as I can see the only group of people impaired by the RSA patent were American citizens as a group.
(Other than Canadians..) The reason that RSA isn't patentable in other countries isn't because the US is the only place that permits algorithm patents (many countries do, and even provide more than US;
"Other than Canadians"? Exactly what is the legal status of RSA and other crypto algorithms in Canada? My understanding of ITAR is, crypto software can be exported from the USA into Canada, but even in Canada, it remains under US ITAR laws. But what about the patent laws? Do RSA and/or IDEA have patent strings attached up here? Bottom line: Are there any potential problems with me using the international version of PGP (2.6.3i) up here in Canada? What about distributing it? Most of the legal info I see on the net about crypto in Canada only mentions Canada in the context of "US/Canada". :-/ ===================================================================== | Steve Reid - SysAdmin & Pres, EDM Web (http://www.edmweb.com/) | | Email: steve@edmweb.com Home Page: http://www.edmweb.com/steve/ | | PGP Fingerprint: 11 C8 9D 1C D6 72 87 E6 8C 09 EC 52 44 3F 88 30 | | -- Disclaimer: JMHO, YMMV, IANAL. -- | ===================================================================:)