Re: Irony of RSA Encryption

[Paul Serice <serice@bigfoot.com>]

Nicolás Lichtmaier wrote:
> 
> I have read your message a couple of times and I have yet to find
> one such "case in point"...

Maybe I'm missing your point, but there seems to be lots of talk about
the evil of RSA-style patents and the laws that allow them.

I'm not a big fan of the GPL.  The short explanation is that I think
the GPL is misleading and that "free" better describes BSD or public
domain software, not the restrictions in the GPL.  My understanding is
that this is a common belief.

It's easy for GPL supporters to say that software patents are one of
the biggest threats to free software in the middle of the exclusionary
period.  It's like all the reports in the middle of summer complaining
about global warming.  I have never heard and probably never will hear
a global warming report when it's below freezing outside.

So, I think it's fair to point out when it happens that software or
ideas under the current legal regime end up with significantly fewer
restrictions than they would have under the legal regime advocated by
FSF and GPL.

So, that's the "case in point": Under the RSA example, the current
legal regime, for all its imperfections, results in software and ideas
that are freer than what you would have under a pure GPL legal regime.


Paul Serice