Re: RC4 Legal Issues

[Andrew Brown <a.brown@nexor.co.uk>]

On Wed, 14 Sep 1994, Patrick G. Bridges wrote:

> Can RC4 still be construed as a trade secret or proprirtary to
> RSADS and Bizdos or are, as I understand from previous messages,
> we free to use RC4 now (ignoring the submarine patent issue)?

I just checked the Cryptography Today FAQ from rsa.com and found 
precious little clues in the section about RC2 and RC4, except for the 
following:

  "RC2 and RC4 are proprietary algorithms of RSA Data Security, Inc.; 
   details have not been published" (sic)

They claim that RC4 is 10 or more times as fast as DES.  Has anyone done 
any speed trials against libdes yet?


Regards,

- Andy

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