Thor Lancelot Simon <tls@rek.tjls.com> writes:

> RSA have a patent that they _claim_ covers DSA.  The NSA, on the other
> hand, has rather publically stated that they invented the relevant
> technique first and can document it. 

> Nobody seems to think RSA would get far in any court with an
> infringement claim against someone using DSA, and RSA, despite
> making a lot of noise early on, have yet to sue anyone...

This isn't about logic, it's about politics. 

If IDEA source code can't *exist* in the source repository because
some use of the code might infringe on a patent, how can you have DSA
code that also might infringe on another patent? As I see it, the IDEA
case is equivalent to the DSA case. The difference is that Ascom might
be more agressive about defending their patent since their patent
expires at a later date.

Neither the RSA patent nor the Ascom patent has been tried in court
(as far as I know). You're not supposed to try patents in court,
you're supposed to threaten people to try them in court.

/Johan