Property RIghts in Keys

[Weger, B.M.M. de]

Hi all,

> Say I have discovered a marvelous method of easily factoring 
> RSA keys, which unfortunately the margin of this emacs buffer 
> is too small to contain, and I then go out, factor GeoTrust's 
> CA key and issue a new certificate.
> 
> Questions:
> 
> Am I now infringing on GeoTrust's IP rights? Or have, rather, 
> I made myself a co-owner in said rights on this particular key?
> 
> Have I broken any law? If not, should what I have done be illegal?

Here's a variant that I find interesting ;-). It's not about the 
public key but about the signature, another cryptograhic field
in a certificate that shares many properties with keys.

Say somebody has discovered a marvelous method of finding collisions
for a hash function. Then he creates two certificates, of which the
to-be-signed parts form a hash collision. Then he lets a CA sign 
one of them, and copies the signature into the other one, making
that a certificate that is indistinguishable from a valid one
issued by the CA. Has he broken any copyright law?

I admit this is a purely hypothetical case. Or... maybe it isn't?

Grtz,
Benne de Weger
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