Property RIghts in Keys

[Steven M. Bellovin]

On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:14:54 +0000
Nicholas Bohm <nbohm at ernest.net> wrote:

> In responding to what Steven M. Bellovin wrote about GeoTrust, I
> mentioned the low UK copyright law requirement for creativity.
> 
> As a postscript to that observation, I draw attention to s9(3) of the
> UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988:
> 
> (3) In the case of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work
> which is computer-generated, the author shall be taken to be the
> person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the
> work are undertaken.
> 
> And s178 provides the definition:  "computer-generated", in relation
> to a work, means that the work is generated by computer in
> circumstances such that there is no human author of the work.
> 
> These provisions seem to me to work quite aptly to encompass a
> key-pair.
> 
As best I can tell, the creativity was by the person who wrote their
certificate software...  Besides -- is a certificate a "literary,
dramatic, musical or artistic work"?

In any event, British law doesn't apply; the CPS states that it is to
be interpreted under Virginia, US, law.

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb

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