Re: [TLS] On Curve25519 and other possibilities (e.g. ietf256p, ietf384p, ietf521p,

On 6/28/2014 4:31 PM, Andrey Jivsov wrote:
> On 06/28/2014 12:59 PM, Michael StJohns wrote:
>>
>> >>>>  "IPR Issues":
>>
>> The specific set of IPR issues that concern me are the license and 
>> copyright with respect to DJB's basic work.    Unless there is a 
>> "perpetual, paid up, world-wide, irrevocable" license for anything 
>> that he's done (or could do in this space) there are possible future 
>> issues.  Something as simple as invoking the already existing 
>> copyright on the curve data could be problematic.
>>
>> Note that I'm not saying this will happen, or that its even 
>> contemplated,  but it's a potential problem that should be resolved 
>> formally and legally.
>>
>> (It's possible there is such a document, but I went looking and 
>> didn't find it.  Some of this is tagged "public domain" but that's 
>> probably insufficient for most lawyers).
>>
>> If DJB et al is willing to transfer change control/copyright/patent 
>> rights/moral rights to the IETF (via appropriate documentation), and 
>> the IETF is willing to publish an actual standard then this objection 
>> goes away. 
>
> BTW, focusing on F(p) (which is not really an ECC) also helps with the 
> above concerns. p = 2^n-C is free due to the following expired patent 
> : https://www.google.com/patents/US5159632 .
>
> IMO it would appear "safer" for hardware vendors to only 
> implement/provide optimization primitives for F(p), for a couple of 
> specific p's.

If I generated parameters for F(p) and published them under normal 
copyright, AFAIK you couldn't use them absent a copyright license 
regardless of patent rights.   For the existing curves, those grants of 
license exist in some form or another.   To avoid IPR issues, you need a 
set of both technology (patent) rights and parameter (copyright) rights.

As I said, I just want the documentation to avoid future issues.

>
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