At 01:38 PM 12/10/00 -0800, Bram Cohen wrote:
>Note to cryptographers of the world - there are two reasons to patent an
>algorithm -
>
>1) to keep anyone else from patenting it and release it into the public
>domain.
>
>2) to keep anyone from using it
>
>If you're not doing 1, you're doing 2.
>
>-Bram Cohen

That's a bit harsh.  Cryptographers (are often employed by organizations
that) accumulate patents either to harvest royalties or to trade for other IP 
with them.

It is true that patented things are avoided when free alternatives exist;
IDEA lost the popularity it could have gained via PGP's deployment.




 






  





Reply via email to