From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 05:27:29 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Re: UK spooks invent RSA, DH in 1973
In-Reply-To: <199712171946.OAA08750@homeport.org>
Message-ID: <v03102801b0bde1dc0110@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 1:20 PM -0700 12/17/97, Jim Burnes wrote:
>On Wed, 17 Dec 1997, Adam Shostack wrote:
>
>> Jim Burnes wrote:
>>
>> | >      http://jya.com/ellisdoc.htm
>> |
>> | Can patents be revoked due to prior art arguments?
>>
>> 	I think its a really bad precedent to revoking patents based
>> on the basis of secret documents released after the fact.  If you
>> believe in patents, then having your work nullifiable by government
>> claims is a bad idea.
>
>I was not advocating that they should be revoked, just curious
>as to whether they could be.
>
>But your analysis makes sense.  It would be simple for the
>government, within the context of the secrets act, to simply
>crank out phony secrets and destroy the financial viability
>of companies they don't like.

The rationale involves a lot more than just the _government_ doing this. If
patents are to make any sense at all, then there cannot be a continuing
series of "disclosures" of private diaries, private letters, lab notebooks,
and other items unavailable for public examination at the time the patent
was granted.

(I'm not defending patents. I believe they've outlived their usefullness.
And technology has made them easy to evade. Etc. Another topic.)

"Submarine" patents are especially odious. (Where applicants keep amending
their claims to cover new developments, all in secret. This was how the
_alleged_ "inventor of the microprocessor" was able to amend his
application for almost 20 years before the Patent Office in their ignorance
granted him a patent!)

The forgery issue (e.g., people backdating reports or modifying old papers)
is of course solvable with digital time-stamping services, though the
"brilliant penny scam" remains a concern.

(BPS--register or time-stamp N variants of some idea, and then only reveal
the particular variant one wishes, showing one to have invented something,
or predicted the future, etc. When it costs little or nothing to
register/stamp some instance, the BPS must always be a concern.)

--Tim May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."