Simona Nass of SEA sent this over to me for y'all. Eric ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Simona Nass <simona@panix.com> Subject: SEA Opposes Privatization of Digital Signature Standard (fwd)

August 19, 1993 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Simona Nass (212) 982-4320 or simona@sea.org

Society for Electronic Access (SEA) Opposes Privatization of Digital Signature Standard

In June, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) published in the Federal Register its intention to grant an exclusive license for nongovernmental use of the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA), a technique developed for NIST by federally-funded researchers. DSA can help people authenticate the origin of electronic mail and other computerized messages. NIST has proposed making DSA the basis of a standard for digital signatures for transactions within federal agencies and by anyone doing electronic business with the government (and thus, de facto, by anyone else interested in a widely-accepted digital-signature standard). Interested parties were given 60 days to comment. The SEA has now gone on record opposing this license on three grounds:

1) The law requires an open discussion of whether such an exclusive license serves the interests of both the government and the public _before_ the license and its terms are proposed.

2) The proposed license directly contravenes NIST's stated purpose in developing DSA in the first place, which was to make a digital-signature standard free of encumbrance from privately held patent licenses, one that would be available royalty-free worldwide.

3) The proposed license violates federal law governing the granting of exclusive licenses. The law states that an exclusive license can only be granted for a patent if it can be shown that the technology embodied in the patent would not otherwise be developed, brought to market and widely used. Considering that NIST's proposed licensee, Public Key Partners, is currently engaged in legal action to prevent anyone else from developing or marketing digital-signature technology in the U.S., they appear to be an unlikely choice to ensure the widest possible use of DSA. Indeed, granting an exclusive license to PKP would extend their potential legal monopoly on digital signatures until 2010.

Opposition to the NIST/PKP deal has been widespread throughout the electronic community. NIST has yet to respond to the SEA's August 9 filing, or to comments filed by other organizations (a full text of the SEA's statement, written by SEA board member Clay Shirky, is available via Internet gopher -- reach gopher.panix.com and look under Society for Electronic Access (SEA), Telecom Law Information, SEA Comment on NIST-PKP Agreement -- or via e-mail by sending a request asking for the "SEA Comment on NIST-PKP Agreement" to sea@sea.org).

The Society for Electronic Access is a New York-based organization focusing on electronic civil liberties and access issues; for more information, e-mail sea-info@sea.org; write to The Society for Electronic Access, Post Office Box 3131, Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008-3131; or call (212) 982-4320.