GPG and PGP

[Aaron Toponce]

On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 10:22:45AM +0100, Werner Koch wrote:
> Yes.  Back in 1997 I implemented PGP 2 compatible code as the first
> towards GPG.  Obviously I needed IDEA and RSA for testing.  That is the
> reason why we have this code at all.  Later a lot of people demanded
> that IDEA and RSA should be added to GPG so that existing files could be
> decrypted.  The claim was that RSA is only patented in the U.S. and the
> IDEA patent is not valid in some European countries like Luxembourg and
> Denmark.

Three things-

1. The U.S. patent expires for IDEA on January 7, 2012.
2. IDEA has already been succeeded by IDEA NXT, another patented algo.
3. Both IDEA and IDEA NXT don't meet the rigor of many of today's open
   algos.

So, if you ask me, I don't see the need to support even the capability
of a module with GnuPG. PGP 2 is long since dead, and anyone still using
IDEA for whatever reason, should migrate to more robust, secure and open
algos.

Just my 2¢.

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