From: Jason Zions <jazz@hal.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 93 08:24:22 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Encryption policies of Fidnet, etc.
In-Reply-To: <260ohk$l2e@hal.com>
Message-ID: <9309011520.AA19223@jazz.hal.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


 JTD> It is illegal to encrypt messages period.
 JTD> E-mail encryption is illegal

>Depends on your network and where you live.

>It is illegal to use PGP in the United States due to its use of a
>copyrighted algoritm.  It is *NOT* illegal to use it anywhere else in 
>the world.  Other encryption methods are legal.

Jeez, talk about misinformation.

If it were copyright, then a US copyright is indeed restrictive world-wide;
that's the point of the Berne Convention.

However, it's not copyright; it's pretty tought to copyright an algorithm,
all one can do is copyright the exact expression of one implementation of
that algorithm. What's involved here is a patent, which is (as you note) not
binding outside the US.

Finally, is it certain that PGP indeed infringes on a valid patent?

>... Get the facts first - you can distort them later!

Ah. This explains much.

Jason