Restrictions / Commercial Use?

[Greg Strong]

Are there any restrictions on using GnuPG for commercial use?  

GnuPG says at http://www.gnupg.org/ that "GnuPG is a complete and free 
replacement for PGP. Because it does not use the patented IDEA 
algorithm, it can be used without any restrictions."  

While the installation instructions for GPGshell at 
http://www.jfrisch.de/GPG-Install/Seiten-englisch/index.html states 
that If you want to use GPG in a non-commercial environment I recommend 
to use the following GPG-version. Please keep in mind that this file 
contains a version with implemented IDEA-algorithm which is free only 
for non-commercial use!"

On http://www.jumaros.de/rsoft/gpgshell.html the author states that 
"GPGshell is a graphical interface for GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard). GnuPG 
is a free RFC2440 (OpenPGP) compliant replacement for PGP. Because it 
does not use the patented IDEA algorithm, it can be used without any 
restrictions."

I've scanned the GNU General Public License (GPL) in plain text format 
at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt.  I believe this license governs 
the distribution of GnuPG.  I don't recall seeing any restrictions on 
use meaning commercial versus non-commercial.

The only thing I can see different is the fact that GPGshell 
installation instructions reference a different file, 
gnupg-w32-1.0.6.zip, than GnuPG, gnupg-w32-1.0.6-2.zip.

I have not installed GnuPG or any frontend.  These statements seem to 
conflict each other, or am I missing something here.  Please explain.  
TIA!



Greg Strong
Email: gw_goldwing@gwstrong.com

Sun, 31 Mar 2002 13:33 CST