On Jun 22, 2010, at 11:25 PM, Robert J. Hansen wrote: > On 6/22/10 10:39 PM, David Shaw wrote: >> I'm not sure about the 2007 patent expiration - I recall it being >> right around now, actually (2010-2011). > > A little digging around revealed the United States patent expiration: > January 7, 2012. > > I am not a patent attorney, I don't pretend to be an authoritative > source on patent law. All we can say definitively is the original > patent expires January 7, 2012: subsequent patents may have extended > this date.
So it's still patented, starting to show cracks, and only really used for compatibility with a very deprecated key type and codebase. It's not even clear where you could get a license if you really had to use IDEA. The mediacrypt.com site where you can get a license was offline for a long time. It's back online now (and goes to the Nagra/Kudelski page, which may be amusing to those who used Nagra reel-to-reel tape recorders at one point - odd what companies expand into), but I still see nothing about IDEA licensing. David _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
