Comments for OpenSSH SRP patch
Re: SRP patent
This patent is one of the "good" kinds. That is,
it is a defensive patent with a royalty free
license designed so that nobody else can patent it
and the algorithm will always be free
for anyone to use. Note that the patent only
provides this protection for RFC2945
implementations, such as this patch. Tom Wu has
made it explicitly clear on various public mailing
lists that SRP (that is, RFC2945), is intended to
be free and clear forever, and the patent
reference given in the original comment makes that
legal.
SRP patent
SRP is patent pending (or already patented), see the respective
reference (availtech.stanford.edu...) from Stanford University.
And while they give
a royalty-free license for some uses, I suppose that may
change whenever they like. SRP is nice, and I really hope this
will not end like the Unisys/GIF debacle ...
Download directions
This patch is being hosted on Tripod -- you must
left click all links to download.
Re: SRP patent
> I suppose that may
> change whenever they like. SRP is
> nice, and I really hope this
...
If their current license provide a perprtual irrevocable license for certain uses, then
it would be hard for them to 'break' existing software in the future. This does not,
however, prevent them from shifting licensing for the other 'more commercial' uses of
the protocol.
I guess we'll just have to wait, and see their license.