Bug#153006: Debian package for Eccp109
Hello!
On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 10:48:11AM -0500, cmonico wrote:
> Hi Robert,
> Thanks for the interest. I think a Debian client would be very worthwile and
> helpful to the project. The only potential caveat is the timeline - we expect
> to have the challenge solved in about 3 months, after which the client will be
> completely useless.
That sounds like a show stopper. We generaly only package software that we
expect to be useful in a long-term. Do you know if certicom is going to set
more challenges in the future?
> 2) The code was loosely GPL'd in the beginning, butit seems to have fallen
> apart. I can easily enough add a LICENSE file and fix the headers. There are
> patents that cover elliptic curve cryptography (held mostly by Certicom), but
Patent issues are very delicate. I'm afraid that maybe we can't include
this in Debian.
> this client itself is purely mathematical - there's no crypto going on in it
> at all. It is essentially just doing arithmetic in a particular group.
Could you clarify this? If the client does not use patented algorithms i guess
it should be ok.
> Also,
> by the nature of the challenge issued by Certicom, they could not have any
> problem with the code (they are already quite aware of it, and of the fact
> that we're working to solve their challenge, and they have not complained).
In that case, depending on wether the patents affect your program, it might
be a good idea to ask them for a formal permission to license an implementation
of their algorithms under the GPL (and to extend the GPL license to all its
users)
> I'll try to fix the source and have the new one up by the end of the week.
> I'll note on the web page that the only change is the licensing, so you can
> see when the source has been updated.
Thanks for your help.
--
Robert Millan
"5 years from now everyone will be running
free GNU on their 200 MIPS, 64M SPARCstation-5"
Andrew S. Tanenbaum, 30 Jan 1992
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