Friends, colleagues, and co-conspirators, It has been 17 long years and now the time is finally here to celebrate at the: BLIND SIGNATURE PATENT EXPIRATION PARTY ======================================= WHAT: A party to celebrate the expiration of the Blind Signature patent. WHY: U.S. Patent 4,759,063 ("Blind Signature Systems") to David Chaum is the core invention enabling privacy-protecting electronic payment systems and credentials. It was a truly ingenious, ground-breaking contribution. Unfortunately the existence of the corresponding patent, which was notoriously difficult to license, prevented this great invention from receiving the wide use that it so very much deserved. For a copy of the patent, see http://www.pat2pdf.org/pat2pdf/foo.pl?number=4759063 Unlike copyrights these days, patents do expire. The blind signature patent will expire on July 19, 2005, next Tuesday. Since weekends tend to fit better with the schedules of potential party goers than weekdays, we are holding the party this Saturday instead. The 17 years that this patent has been in effect has been an awfully long time for the many of us that hoped to make use of this technology to help citizens to maintain privacy in the age of the Internet and the patent's expiration is a much overdue reason for celebration. WHO: If you know what blind signatures are you are invited. WHEN: This Saturday, July 16, starting at 1:00 PM PDT WHERE: Since the number of inquiries I received in response to the party pre-announcement exceed the maximum occupancy limit of my home and since the weather promises to be excellent, we will hold the party in a beer garden instead. Drinks are on me! We will meet at the Alpine Inn (aka Alpine Beer Garden) 3915 Alpine Road, Portola Valley, CA 94028 USA AWARDS: Those that can demonstrate that they have created a full system that makes significant use of the blind signature patent by 4 PM on Saturday will be invited to and receive a free dinner at the afterparty. So get coding! (Pr0duct Cypher, where are you)? A team of judges will determine if a particular system qualifies for the award. AFTERPARTY: A handful of us plan to have dinner at a swanky restaurant on patent-free Tuesday. Email me or talk with me at the party if you are interested in joining. Space is limited. You will have to pay for your own food at the Tuesday dinner unless you qualify for the award above or your name is on the blind signature patent. Looking forward to see you all this Saturday, --Lucky ________________________________________________________________ This email could have been PGP encrypted. If you already have a PGP key, please upload it to https://keyserver.pgp.com to enable all users of PGP Universal and PGP Desktop 9 to use your key. If you would like your key to be used only with the cypherpunks.to domain, please upload your key to this PGP Universal server by visiting the URL below. https://keys.cypherpunks.to/b/b.e?r=cypherpunks%40minder.net&n=lzqcyQA4Pb3bG%2FFx180YsQ%3D%3D