[ale] PGP/GPG Compatibility Issues

[Jerry Z. Yu]

	glad to learn that their definition of 'commericial' is similar to 
SSH's. I'll start to use it for my GnuPG then. Equipped only with GPG,  I 
have always been a little afraid that someday a big customer may show up 
with some 'idea' :-)

On Tue, 18 Jun 2002, Michael H. Warfield wrote:

#On Tue, Jun 18, 2002 at 04:16:50PM -0400, Jerry Z. Yu wrote:
#> I believe he's talking the other way around. GPG doesn't have "idea" (as 
#> it is patented. or it expires too? ). 
#
#	Right...  That's the point.  Gpg doesn't come packaged with
#idea.  It has to be loaded as a plugin.  That's what the instructions
#are for.  You can load idea as a plugin to gpg.  Of course, there are
#the patent issues.
#
#	This is from the "MediaCrypt" web site, <http://www.mediacrypt.com>
#who claim to be the "Home of IDEA" (Ascom is a cofounder) and to be able
#to license IDEA commercially to you...
#
#	<http://www.mediacrypt.com/engl/Content/patent_info.htm,
#
#] IDEA is protected by International copyright law and in addition has
#] been patented in several countries.  Because MediaCrypt wants to make
#] this highly secure algorithm widely available, the non-commercial use of 
#] this algorithm is free. However, whenever you or your company sells
#] any products including the IDEA algorithm in any of the countries
#] listed below, it needs a license granted by MediaCrypt. See more detailed
#] description in the Licensing Policy section.
#
#	That says outright that non-commercial use is free and that
#if you are selling a product which incorporates IDEA, you need a
#license.  Gnupg is free.  The only question is the use of IDEA
#with gnupg in a commercial environment where it (and IDEA) are not
#being sold.  The implication is that this is acceptable and they have
#not indicated anything to the contrary on their site.  There are lots
#of other sites with other, older, information but their site should
#be authoritative on IDEA patent and licensing issues.
#
#	I wasn't able to dig any finer refinement out of their site.
#
#	So you can download idea and load it into gpg as a plugin
#and gpg then supports IDEA.  It can't be included as an integral
#feature of gpg because of the patent.  But you can still load it
#and use it.  If you sell it, you are in violation of the license.
#If you use it for non-commercial purposes, you are safe.  If you
#use it for compatibility purposes, it's a little grey but nobody
#has complained to date.  It's your determination to make.
#
#> The FAQ 5.4 may have the answer at http://www.gnupg.org/faq.html#q5.4
#> 5.4) Why is PGP 5.x not able to encrypt messages with some keys? 
#> 
#>                PGP Inc refuses to accept ElGamal keys of type 20 even for 
#> encryption. They only support type 16 (which is
#>                identical at least for decryption). To be more 
#> inter-operable, GnuPG (starting with version 0.3.3) now also uses
#>                type 16 for the ElGamal subkey which is created if the 
#> default key algorithm is chosen. You may add an type 16
#>                ElGamal key to your public key which is easy as your key 
#> signatures are still valid.
#> 
#> On Tue, 18 Jun 2002, Michael H. Warfield wrote:
#> 
#> #On Tue, Jun 18, 2002 at 10:47:58AM -0400, Randy Janinda wrote:
#> #> I'm managing a corporate PGP (ebiz 7.0.1) program and have recently
#> #> received GPG keys for a customer. Unfortunately, the keys can be
#> #> inserted on the keyring, but encryption fails when this key is used.
#> #> Does anyone have info about GPG/PGP interoperability and what the
#> #> problem and solution may be? I really want this to work and not force
#> #> the customer into the clutches of NAI.
#> #
#> #	Your problem is probably the IDEA encryption algorithm.
#> #You'll have to download the pluggin, build it, then add it to
#> #your configuration.
#> #
#> #	The following was blatently plagerized from a message from
#> #Calum Mackay <calum.mackay at sun.com> posted recently to the gnupg-users
#> #mailing list which sums it up very nicely...
#> #
#> #] Quick answer:
#> #] 
#> #] o Download ftp://ftp.gnupg.dk/pub/contrib-dk/idea.c
#> #] 
#> #] o Compile:
#> #] 
#> #]        gcc -Wall -O2 -shared -fPIC -o idea idea.c
#> #] 
#> #] o Copy "idea" into your extensions dir, e.g <.../lib/gnupg>
#> #] 
#> #] o Add to ~/.gnupg/options:
#> #] 
#> #]         load-extension idea
#> #] 
#> #] You can now decrypt files you may have previously encrypted with "pgp -c".
#> #] 
#> #] cheers,
#> #] Calum.
#> #
#> #	In this case, you can also deal with messages and keys with
#> #IDEA as the encryption preference.
#> #
#> #	If that's NOT the problem, you are going to have to post more
#> #information, like the specific failures and error messages you encountered.
#> #
#> #> Thanks,
#> #
#> #> Randy Janinda
#> #
#> #
#> #	Mike
#> #-- 
#> # Michael H. Warfield    |  (770) 985-6132   |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
#> #  /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/       |  (678) 463-0932   |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
#> #  NIC whois:  MHW9      |  An optimist believes we live in the best of all
#> # PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471    |  possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
#> #
#> #---
#> #This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
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#> #sent to listmaster at ale dot org.
#> #
#> 
#> Jerry Z. Yu					+1-404-487-8544 (O)
#> systems engineer				z.yu at voicecom.com
#> is support, voicecom, llc			www.voicecom.com
#
#-- 
# Michael H. Warfield    |  (770) 985-6132   |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
#  /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/       |  (678) 463-0932   |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
#  NIC whois:  MHW9      |  An optimist believes we live in the best of all
# PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471    |  possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
#

Jerry Z. Yu					+1-404-487-8544 (O)
systems engineer				z.yu at voicecom.com
is support, voicecom, llc			www.voicecom.com


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