On Tue, 15 Oct 1996, pclow wrote:
I understand from a previous post that if I were to commercialised PGP in a package, I have to pay some royalties(?) to the owners(?) of IDEA. My apologies to the list for repeating the question which is, who do I pay to and how much.
You cannot commercialize PGP whether you pay Ascom-Tech any royalties or not. Phil Zimmermann grated an exclusive license to ViaCrypt, Inc. a number of years ago to be the sole commercial version of PGP. In the mean time, PGP Inc. was formed and has acquired ViaCrypt. Thus, PGP Inc. now holds the exclusive license on commercial PGP products. Just by chance, Phil Zimmermann is the CEO of PGP Inc. If you bundle ViaCrypt/PGP's commercial offering into a "suite" of some sort, you needn't worry about the license fee as ViaCrypt's stuff is not covered by Ascom-Tech's license arrangement. You would, however, have to get ViaCrypt's permission *and*, I think, if you were to ever get an export capability to Europe, you'd then be liable for the license fee. If you're just interested in packaging IDEA into something, you can contact the owners at: Ascom Tech LTD Morgenstrasse 129 CH-3018 Bern Switzerland Phone: +41 31 999 42 63 Fax: +41 31 999 36 07 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |some people get by | Mark Aldrich | |with a little understanding | GRCI INFOSEC Engineering | |some people get by | maldrich@grci.com | |with a whole lot more | MAldrich@dockmaster.ncsc.mil| | -- Sisters of Mercy | | |_______________________________________________________________________| |The author is PGP Empowered. Public key at: finger maldrich@grci.com | | The opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the author | | and my employer gets no credit for them whatsoever. | -------------------------------------------------------------------------