How to Save PGP

Tomcat666 sends in: "The Register got some excerpts from an interview with Phil Zimmerman. He talks about how it might be possible to save PGP (Network Associates couldn't sell it, and will stop its development), OpenPGP and the future (industry-backed OpenPGP?)." A follow-up to our story yesterday about Network Associates mothballing PGP.

Comments

Why save PGP?

[crush]

specifically what does it add over GPG? Would it not be better for GPG if PGP were to die?

I actually have no objections to it being presevered and developed, especially if it were Free Software, what I'm asking for is reasons for it to be preseved from the point of view of Free Software advocates.

Re:Let's create a /. Corporation

[mwalker]

If /. changes it's subscribtion pay pal account instead to be a funding house to purchase PGP, each user could donate 25 dollars

That's a great idea. However, the economics don't hold up in the face of current customer research. Right now the max "penetration rate" for subsciptions is hovering at about 20%, best case. In short, 80% of the people who read Slashdot are freeloaders who won't even pay to read their favorite web site. Couple that with the unavailability of a flat rate subsciption (despite overwhelming market preference for flat rate) and you've got a virtually nil chance of success. What makes you think Slashdot readers are going to pay for software of all things?