To: >Internet:cypherpunks@toad.com Enclosed is the essential text of the "RSA" patent. Now it's time to go to work. 1) (Interference) Is there anything in history wherein someone created a cypher consisting of two parts which could only be broken when they were combined mathematically? Or how about a wax seal created by impressing two images, one after the other-----verifying authenticity? 2) (Interference) Stripped of it's turgid language, does the basic equation fit any other ordinary operation such as factoring some type of equation. Is there some routine mathematical operation in number theory which resembles it? 3) (Invalidity) is there any part of the description language that could be interpreted two different ways? 4) (Misuse) a) Were any federal funds used in this project? Somebody at MIT needs to dig into the public documents there. b) If so, was the government irresponsible in licensing something so useful to the public to a company (in which they are a partner) which makes it's use by the public difficult? Can any evidence be found that this was deliberate? 5) (Misuse) Does RSA telling Phil Zimmermann that they will "never" license PGP to use RSA constitute monopolistic abuse? 6) (Misuse) The underlying purpose of the patent system was to encourage the creative genius for the benefit of the public. Has the public benefited in this case? 7) Keep thinking, and volunteer to take on some aspect of this and research it. Most research is not done by attorneys but, rather, by assitants who simply assemble the case histories for them to work from. By doing this work ourselves, any attorney or company wishing to challenge this patent in court is halfway there. 1475889 2329848 E/ CRYPTOGRAPHIC COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM AND METHOD -------------------------------------------------------------------- Inventors: Adleman Leonard M (US); Rivest Ronald L (US); Shamir Adi (US) Assigned to: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Code: 52912 Patent Number: 4405829 Application Number: US 860586 Application Date: 12/14/77 Issue Date: 9/20/83 Patent Type: Utility Citations: Cited by 29 later patents Abstract: --------- A cryptographic communications system and method. The system includes a communications channel coupled to at least one terminal having an encoding device and to at least one terminal having a decoding device. A message-to-be-transferred is enciphered to ciphertext at the encoding terminal by first encoding the message as a number M in a predetermined set, and then raising that number to a first predetermined power (associated with the intended receiver) and finally computing the remainder, or residue, C, when the exponentiated number is divided by the original message at the decoding terminal in a similar manner by raising the ciphertext to a second predetermined power (associated with the intended receiver), and then computing the residue, M', when the exponentiated ciphertext is divided by the product of the two predetermined prime numbers associated with the intended receiver. The residue M' corresponds to the original encoded message M. Exemplary Claim: ---------------- A communications system for transferring a message signal Mi comprising k terminals, wherein each terminal is characterized by an encoding key Ei (ei, ni) and decoding key Di (ei, ni), where i 1,2, . . . ,k, and wherein Mi corresponds to a number representative of a message signal to be transmitted from the ith terminal, ni is a composite number of the form ni pi X qi Pi and qi are prime numbers, ei is relatively prime to 1 cm(pi-1,qi-1), di is a multiplicative inverse of ei(mod(1 cm((pi-1),(qi-1)))) wherein a first terminal includes means for encoding a digital message word signal MA for transmission from said first terminal (i A) to a second terminal (i B), said first terminal including: means for transforming said message word signal MA to one or more message block word signals MA', each block word signal MA being a number representative of a portion of said message word signal MA in the range 0 < OR = MA < OR = nB-1, means for transforming each of said message block word signals MA'' to a ciphertext word signal CA, CA corresponding to a number representative of an encoded form of said message block word signal MA'', whereby: CA identical MA''eB(mod nB).