On Sat, 29 Jul 2000, Rich Salz wrote:
> > If the US federal government owns this algorithm, then it can't be
> > patented.
>
> I'm not sure if you are referring to SHA1 in particular, or in general.
> While I don't know about SHA-1, the US Government *can* own patents.
> For example, here's one that's actually kinda relevent. :)
Yeah, you're right. I remember the patent discussion came up a while back
with the NSA's Semantic Forest thing. I think it's the heat, global
warming is ruining my memory. As I recall, though, there was at one time
a provision of law in the US that the federal government couldn't
copyright their documents. Maybe that is changed now. I still seems like
US federal 'inventions' should belong to the people. Who the hell are
they representing anyway?
[The U.S. government can't copyright things but it can patent
them. Copyright is not the same as patents. --Perry]
