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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:17:38
Jim Gillogly (jim@acm.org)
Sat, 19 Dec 1998 15:08:06 -0800
David Honig writes:
> Aren't stream ciphers usually less resource hungry than block ciphers?
>
> Some (e.g., Rivest's Ciphers) are public domain.
Most of Rivest's ciphers are block ciphers, and are not in the public domain.
All are trademarked, and RC5 includes patented goop in it, some of which
probably applies to RC6. RC2's status freed up as a result of some IETF
negotiations earlier this year, but it's still not public domain.
The most arguably public domain of his ciphers is the stream cipher RC4,
which was protected as a trade secret until its secrecy was blown. If RC6 is
selected as the new AES it will become free for use in any application, but
until then (or RSADSI explicitly changes the status) it is not now. I think
(but IANAL) that RC4 (tm) is OK to use as long as you don't use the name...
but check with your own lawyer before productizing it.
-- Jim Gillogly Hevensday, 29 Foreyule S.R. 1998, 22:59 12.19.5.14.2, 8 Ik 15 Mac, Third Lord of Night
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:17:38