Subject: Re: [CFRG] Classic McEliece

From: "D. J. Bernstein" <[email-masked]>
Date: 15 Oct 2023 14:28:25 -0000

Peter C writes:
> Almost the entire content of draft-josefsson-mceliece is taken
> verbatim from the first working draft of ISO/IEC 18033-2/AMD2.

No.

1. The Classic McEliece team converted its public specs into ISO format
as a draft of a potential ISO McEliece standard, and released that to
the public in April 2023:

   https://classic.mceliece.org/iso-mceliece-20230419.pdf

Simon derived his public draft from this public document from the
Classic McEliece team.

2. ISO/IEC 18033-2/AMD2 WD1 is not a public document, and is not the
source of Simon's public draft.

Peter's publication of the fact that there's an almost perfect match
between WD1 and Simon's public draft appears to be in violation of the
ISO policy on communication of committee work (ISO publication 100382).
However, ISO policy _does_ allow publication of logistical information,
so I'm free to point out that WD1 was distributed by its editors to the
relevant working group, ISO/IEC SC27 WG2, on 30 August 2023.

Given the almost perfect match between WD1 and the earlier document
iso-mceliece-20230419.pdf, and given the almost perfect match between
Simon's document and iso-mceliece-20230419.pdf, it's not surprising to
observe an almost perfect match between Simon's document and WD1.
Selectively releasing this last bit of information, without even
mentioning the timestamps, is deceptive.

As a side note, CFRG has many people who have suffered through reviewing
different specs for the same cryptosystem; it shouldn't be hard for the
whole group to agree that having unified text is a good thing.

3. Regarding the broader notion that this text somehow belongs to ISO,
I'll quote the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, Consolidated ISO Supplement,
2022, Clause 2.13, "Copyright":

   In ISO and IEC, there is an understanding that original material
   contributed to become a part of an ISO, IEC or ISO/IEC publication
   can be copied and distributed within the ISO and/or IEC systems (as
   relevant) as part of the consensus building process, this being
   without prejudice to the rights of the original copyright owner to
   exploit the original text elsewhere.

So, whatever use ISO might decide to make of text contributed by the
Classic McEliece team, ISO doesn't have any sort of exclusivity over
that text.

---D. J. Bernstein (speaking for myself)