Sun donates elliptic curve code to OpenSSL?

[Bodo Moeller]

On Tue, Sep 24, 2002 at 08:51:11PM +0200, Markus Friedl wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 24, 2002 at 08:29:52PM +0200, Ulf Moeller - Mailing Lists wrote:

>> By the way, OpenSSL has always included patented algorithms such as RSA and
>> IDEA, together with warnings about patent issues in the documentation and
>> compile time switches to disable algorithms that are known to be patented.

> yes, but the idea and rc5 support can be disabled by removing the
> directories, whereas the license in question is spread all
> over the source tree.

It's not a modified license, the OpenSSL license still applies.  But
as for IDEA and RC5, the software license is not the only thing you
have to take into account, you also have to consider patents.  Unlike
for IDEA and RC5, there's an offer by Sun that says you can use their
patents pertaining to that source code if you are willing to accept
certain conditions.  If you accept their conditions, you may compile
OpenSSL with preprocessor symbol OPENSSL_SUN_GF2M_DIV defined, which
enables a patented algorithm.  The default configuration does not
require you to accept Sun's conditions.

Something else that is disabled in the default configuration is point
compression for elliptic curves over binary fields; in this case it's
because of a Certicom patent.  I wouldn't mind if Certicom made a
similar offer as Sun, but I'm afraid they won't.


-- 
Bodo Möller <moeller at cdc.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de>
PGP http://www.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/TI/Mitarbeiter/moeller/0x36d2c658.html
* TU Darmstadt, Theoretische Informatik, Alexanderstr. 10, D-64283 Darmstadt
* Tel. +49-6151-16-6628, Fax +49-6151-16-6036

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