[Patents] Interesting take on Libre software and patents

[Jean-Marc Libs libs@cybercable.tm.fr]

I found this on another mailing-list and I thought it might be of 
interest here.

(all the rest is forwarded, it's not mine, it's a post on an open
and publically-accessable archived (I heard) mailing-list)
CC to author for information. I hope it's OK to do that.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 10:47:32 -0700
From: Don Marti <dmarti@zgp.org>
To: karsten@humulus.zgp.org, svlug@svlug.org
Subject: Re: [svlug] anonymous file transfer -- non-FTP?

begin  kmself@ix.netcom.com quotation of Sun, Jul 09, 2000 at 11:53:16PM 
-0700:

> On Sat, Jul 08, 2000 at 05:26:50PM -0700, Steve M Bibayoff wrote:
> > Mentioning Dan Bernstein, does anyone know the license that twofish will
> > be under? I think Bernstein was one of the orginal authurs.
> 
> Note also that licensing of an algorithm (generally addressed by patent)
> is distinct from licensing of an implementation of the algorithm as a
> computer program (copyright).  Different implementations could be
> licensed under different licenses -- in fact, the same implementation
> could be licensed by the original author under different licenses.

"Twofish is unpatented, and the source code is uncopyrighted and 
license-free; it is free for all uses."
http://www.counterpane.com/twofish.html

Twofish is a (the?) leading contestant for the Advanced Encryption
Standard (AES) to be chosen by NIST.  Their web site is interesting
reading, especially this:

SPECIAL NOTE - Intellectual Property NIST reminds all interested parties
that the adoption of AES is being conducted as an open standards-setting
activity. Specifically, NIST has requested that all interested parties
identify to NIST any patents or inventions that may be required for the
use of AES. NIST hereby gives public notice that it may seek redress
under the antitrust laws of the United States against any party in the
future who might seek to exercise patent rights against any user of AES
that have not been disclosed to NIST in response to this request for
information.

That's bureaucrat speak-for "if you try that submarine patent shit on us
you will be eating powdered mashed potatoes in Marion, Illinois for the
rest of your natural-born life."
http://csrc.nist.gov/encryption/aes/

-- 
Don Marti                                No haiku patents
dmarti@zgp.org                           means I've no incentive to
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/         ;
whois DM683     Software patent reform now: http://burnallgifs.org/

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