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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Fri Aug 21 1998 - 17:20:15 ADT
Paulo Barreto (pbarreto@nw.com.br)
Fri, 10 Jul 1998 17:31:34 -0300
At 12:19 1998.07.10 -0600, staym@accessdata.com wrote:
>If I take an existing crypto algoritm and implement it over elliptic
>curves, has it changed enough to not be covered by the copyright of the
>original?
AFAIK *algorithms* cannot be copyrighted (only patented in some countries),
as a copyright covers the *expression* of knowledge, not the knowledge itself.
Assuming a discrete logarithm algorithm is patented, whether or not its EC
version is covered by the patent depends on the precise patent claims.
Some patents clearly state that the EC counterpart of a DL algorithm is
covered, other might not say so. But these days I don't believe there's
any DL stuff whose EC companion is not patented.
Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, and everything I said above may be
meaningless in court.
Paulo Barreto.
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Fri Aug 21 1998 - 17:20:15 ADT