IDEA License

David Shaw dshaw at jabberwocky.com
Mon Mar 25 14:55:20 CET 2013


On Mar 25, 2013, at 8:46 AM, Jan Chaloupecky <chaljan at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> is the IDEA algorithm licensed? Under which conditions am I allowed to use the idea extension in a commercial product?

It was a patented algorithm which required a license.  The patent has since expired (and in fact it was difficult to even purchase a license for the past few years anyway), so there is no license required.

That said, IDEA is somewhat old technology at this point, and it has mostly been supplanted by newer algorithms like AES.  If you have don't have a need for IDEA specifically, you might want to look more widely.

David




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