[9fans] Re: secstore and PAKserver

[Darren Bane <darren.bane@gmail.com>]

lucio@proxima.alt.za wrote:
> I note in /sys/src/cmd/auth/secstore/pak.c:
> 
>        // PAK is an encrypted key exchange protocol designed by Philip MacKenzie et al.
>        // It is patented and use outside Plan 9 requires you get a license.
>        // (All other EKE protocols are patented as well, by Lucent or others.)
> 
> I want to leverage the functionality of the secstore for a different
> application (I'm not yet ready to publicize the details, but I will to
> anyone who shows some interest), but this seems to put a bit of a
> spanner in the works.  Naturally, I can prototype with it, but in the
> long term I have either to licence the PAK stuff (who do I contact?)
> or to replace the code with an analogous facility.
> 
> Has the licence been waved for p9p?  What are the terms of the
> licence?  Does anyone know of licence free options to perform a
> similar function?  I suppose I ought to ask what is so special about
> PAK, too or, more to the point, what does it do that made Bell Labs
> choose it for the secstore?  Maybe if I understood PAK better I'd be
> able to decide whether it is as important in my application as it was
> for the secstore.
> 
> ++L

Are US patents applicable outside the US? I know copyright is, under the
Berne convention, but I thought the patent systems were still strictly
national.
-- 
Darren Bane