At 7:32 PM -0400 10/15/96, Mark O. Aldrich wrote:
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.
It seems a bit strange that PGP Inc. is so fastidious about enforcing intellectual property claims, given the treatment of RSA Data Security Inc.'s similar property claims a few years ago. In other words, I don't worry for one nanosecond about "infringing" on PGP Inc.'s claimed property rights. Nothing personal. --Tim May "The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology." [NYT, 1996-10-02] We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."