|
|
| Author |
Message |
|
| lyn at healthquiz.com |
 Posted: Thu Apr 29, 1999 1:34 am |
 |
|
|
Guest
|
hi,
I'm researching an idea for a secure voting system which I'd like to
develop in erlang and give away for free. I plan to use public key
cryptography (pkc) to guarantee the security of the system.
Has anyone developed any systems in erlang which use pkc?
Does anyone know where to find a freely available implementation of
a pkc library (C is fine), suitable for such an application?
Could I distribute that library along with my application (I am a US
citizen in the US)?
If not, is the best approach to simply distribute my application
separate from the crypto library, then have users download the library
and do a "make crypt-bindings" which compiles the necessary erlang-C
glue? This would make it legal to distribute my (secure) application,
right?
answers or pointers much appreciated,
-Lyn Headley
Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://m2f.sourceforge.net) |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| art at stacken.kth.se |
| Posted: Thu Apr 29, 1999 11:44 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
lyn <lyn_at_healthquiz.com> writes:
> Does anyone know where to find a freely available implementation of
> a pkc library (C is fine), suitable for such an application?
ftp.funet.fi:/pub/crypt is always a good place to look.
> Could I distribute that library along with my application (I am a US
> citizen in the US)?
You can distribute it as much as you want in the US and Canada. But nowhere
else.
> If not, is the best approach to simply distribute my application
> separate from the crypto library, then have users download the library
> and do a "make crypt-bindings" which compiles the necessary erlang-C
> glue? This would make it legal to distribute my (secure) application,
> right?
No. The law stops you not only from distributing crypto. But also code
that uses crypto or has hooks for crypto.
//art
Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://m2f.sourceforge.net) |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| per at erix.ericsson.se |
| Posted: Sat May 01, 1999 7:51 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Artur Grabowski <art_at_stacken.kth.se> wrote:
>
>lyn <lyn_at_healthquiz.com> writes:
>
>> Could I distribute that library along with my application (I am a US
>> citizen in the US)?
>
>You can distribute it as much as you want in the US and Canada. But nowhere
>else.
Well, I'm not a lawyer (either:-), and I think that Lyn should perhaps
contact one (or at least tap into the considerable sources of
information on these matters available on the net in general) before
proceeding - but I believe there are at least two issues relevant to the
question (which isn't Erlang-specific, of curse) that Artur didn't
mention:
1) I think the US export laws are somewhat more forthcoming in cases
where the crypto technology is used solely for authentication, and not
for actual encryption of the data transported. You probably still need
to apply for and get permission though, which may make the difference
academic for a "free" application.
2) Probably more important, as we're talking about public-key
technology: RSA, Inc has a patent in the US that covers the RSA
algorithms, in fact I believe they claim it covers all public-key
technology. This probably means that you can't distribute software that
uses such technology even *inside* the US without an agreement with
them. I think there is one specific implementation (RSAREF), provided by
RSA, that is excluded from the requirement of per-application agreement,
but probably has other restrictions on allowable use - I don't know
anything about the details of this, though.
--Per Hedeland
per_at_erix.ericsson.se
Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://m2f.sourceforge.net) |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
All times are GMT
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum
|
|
|
Digg It
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Facebook
Stumble Upon
Technorati
