The legality of PGP

From: S.E. Brown <shawnb@ecst.csuchico.edu>

Well,

I've been reading a lot of speculation and outright disinformation about the legality of PGP. Does anyone have any informed information about the actual legal status us sing and disseminating the program?

PGP is based on RSA cryptography, which is patented. The patent is controlled by Public Key Partners, which has not granted a license for people to use PGP. Therefore, using PGP is possibly a patent violation, although thus far no action seems to have been taken by PKP in this respect. Perry