From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jun 23 20:21:47 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0832D37B401 for ; Mon, 23 Jun 2003 20:21:47 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mta4.adelphia.net (mta4.adelphia.net [64.8.50.184]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5379243F93 for ; Mon, 23 Jun 2003 20:21:46 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from potentialtech.com ([24.53.161.217]) by mta4.adelphia.net (InterMail vM.5.01.05.32 201-253-122-126-132-20030307) with ESMTP id <20030624032145.FUGM1347.mta4.adelphia.net@potentialtech.com> for ; Mon, 23 Jun 2003 23:21:45 -0400 Message-ID: <3EF7C3C9.8080202@potentialtech.com> Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 23:21:45 -0400 From: Bill Moran User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.3) Gecko/20030429 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: chat@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: What's up with the legal status of RC4 X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 03:21:47 -0000 I'm trying to implement encryption in PDF files ... The PDF spec says to use RC4 to encrypt the data. I've found some data on how to do RC4 (perl & C) but there seems to (potentially) be a legal issue with using it. Anyone know the actual legal status of RC4? Is it patented or anything. Can I legally implement it and sell software using it? I've seen mention of ARC4 (the "Alleged RC4" algorithm) and it seems like mumbo-jumbo to keep folks out of jail or court. Anyone have any pointers to FAQs on this or know what's up? -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com