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Zimmermann Suggests Freeing PGP Source

Posted by timothy on from the like-the-wind dept.

broody writes "NewsForge has an interesting article detailing Phillip R Zimmermann's lament at selling PGP. Since he cannot afford to buy it back outright, he is pushing for Network Associates to 'open source' it. Well, the GUI and SDK anyway. I'll say this, he's an interesting little capitalist."

4 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Dead Man's Switch by peterdaly · · Score: 4, Interesting

    His idea for a Dead Man's Switch license would be very interesting to see implemented. It would be nice to see something like that used in a lot of commercial software.

    Think of all the software that might still be available if they had such a clause in their license. Hell, just the games!

    -Pete

    --
    Soccer Goal Plans
  2. Phil, Please Join Us! by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Phil,

    We'd really like you to join the work on GnuPG, and on GUI projects like GNOME. I think it would be most productive to write off the PGP code base and continue your work on the existing Free Software projects. We've gotten most of the hard work done already.

    Thanks

    Bruce

    --
    Bruce Perens.
  3. Re:Unreleased Updates by zulux · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To stroke the black helicopter theories...

    Several friends of mine work at Microsoft, and apparently, according to one of them - important government types have been at the Microsoft campus. This gist is that has somthing to do with the whole DRM/encryption thingy.

    It makes sense in a odd sort of way - if the govenment could get a back door into the worlds most popular operating system, they would have a goldmine. I'd be disapointed in the NSA if they diden't try.

    --

    Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  4. Phil should work on Mozilla by PingXao · · Score: 4, Interesting

    PZ should get involved with Mozilla. For literally years I've been waiting for someone to build in some sort of public-key email (and newsgroup) crypto. It's still not there yet, and THAT has prevented several people I know - including myself - from adopting Mozilla as my sole internet access tool. I'd love to be able to dump some of the crap I run for email and usenet.

    First it was the export restrictions that were deterring Mozilla crypto. Now it's something else. I guess these projects qualify for some of what's being done today, but I needed Mozilla to do built-in crypto years ago. The standard Mozilla comeback is "do it yourself". Well, I have neither the time nor the skill to do that. But Phil does!