Austin,
Thanks for your note below. A question, though: Can you tell us what your
plans are for licensing the patents in a way that would permit payor- and
payee-anonymous digital cash?
Do you have *any* plans to do such a thing, either for noncommercial/free
or commercial use?
Stefan B. told me on the record at FC'00 (and I quoted him in an article)
saying he would oppose such a move. Adam S. told me the next day after
reading my article that ZKS had made no such decision one way or another.
Which is it?
Thanks,
Declan
At 15:24 2/27/2000 -0500, Austin Hill wrote:
>We did indeed invest in both Dr. Brands and his technology. While I
>personally have a distaste for patents (Both mathematical and absurd
>software patents that are being issued like they are going out of
>style) they are realities of life, and to achieve what we are trying
>to do for privacy we also need to be in that game.
>
>At the same time, Zero-Knowledge is staffed by well known cypherpunks
>at many levels, (as well as a number of open source guru's). While
>we haven't made any announcements regarding our specific plans with
>regards to the patents, or license arrangements you can be assured
>that we will not approach it the way Digicash; RSA or anyone else has
>done before.
>
>We do have some very interesting plans with regards to the patents,
>and I fully expect when we disclose these, they will pass the
>'cypherpunks smell test' and gain full support from this community.
