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PGP Bastardization
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>>If you read the "Snake Oil" section of the PGP User's Guide, then you
>>know how I feel about amateur cryptographer's encryption algorithms
>>that have not been subjected to extensive peer review.
>Well, It is true that I am _not_ being paid for this software. It
>is my hobby. And I don't care how you feel about my hobby.
>Please feel free to make any constructive comments about the
>algorithm.
The time for constructive comments about a new algorithm such as
yours is *before* you release code. IDEA and RSA were already
well respected ciphers before PGP was released.
>I believe that you may by misinformed. I hope that I have made my
>position clear. You relesased the pgp program under the "Copyleft"
>License. I have the right to change the software or use pieced of it.
>I am protected from you trying to deny me those rights.
You may be correct in that Phil Zimmermann has no legal
recourse, but I counldn't say for sure. I am more concerned
with the ethical issues. What have you called your new
super-duper pgp? If you make it abundantly clear that it is
*your* hack of pgp, and not supported in any way by RSA, MIT, or
prz, I personally wouldn't have a problem with it.
It is my feeling that cryptographic software is an entirely
different beast from other software released under such free
licenses. If I improve or port some one's mail reader for
instance, out of *common courtesy*, the first thing I would do
is contact the author to let him know. Any bugs in such a
program would make themselves readily apparent and users would
quickly learn whether or not my version was really an
improvement. How is a user to know that his data has less of a
chance of being compromised using super-kool-pgp than prz's own
version? The people reading his compromised mail certainly
aren't going to tell him that his cryptographic software has a
bug in it.
I think a lot of this issue has less to do with the law and more
to do with courtesy to fellow software authors.
- --
Baba baby mama shaggy papa baba bro baba rock a shaggy baba sister
shag saggy hey doc baba baby shaggy hey baba can you dig it baba baba
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Stuart Smith <[email protected]>
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