From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 95 10:48:06 PDT
To: kutek@ios.com (No Name)
Subject: Re: VIACRYPT
Message-ID: <199508151744.KAA08566@ix7.ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 10:47 AM 8/15/95 -0400, No Name wrote:
>Does anyone know if PKZ get's any royalties from the sale of Viacrypt-
>it is after all his code, isn't it?.  Or is the Viacrypt source entirely
>different ?
>Speaking of which code, has Viacrypt been "verified" in any way by
>some independent agency?

The RSA code in ViaCrypt 2.4 is different from the PGP code; most of the
rest is the same.  The documentation includes a note from Phil,
and I think the code is signed by him.  You can trust it.  As far as money goes,
I don't know their financial arrangements.  My copy has a pretty low serial
number; I hope they've sold enough to make some bucks.

The Windows version of 2.7.1 is substantially different - it's got a GUI
interface,
with a shell-like piece underneath that looks more like vanilla PGP. 
The Preface says it's using ViaCrypt's DigiSig+ RSA implementation,
the IDEA implementation is licensed from Ascom-Tech AG,
the compression code is from Info-Zip bt Mark Adler and Jean-loup Gailly,
and they've licensed Phil Zimmermann's PGP(tm) for the remainder.
They also acknowledge that lots of people contributed,
including Branko Lankester and Peter Gutmann.
The code is signed by ViaCrypt, and their key is signed by Phil.
The documentation is substantially rewritten, mostly for the GUI part.
The examples are somewhat amusing (removing a signature from a key
for Bill Haydon <bill@5thfloor.circus.com> ....)
#---
#                                Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, Freelance Information Architect, stewarts@ix.netcom.com
# Phone +1-510-247-0664 Pager/Voicemail 1-408-787-1281
#---

Storyteller makes no choice - soon you will not hear his voice.
His job was to shed light, and not to master.      RIP, Jerry