Subject: TLS authorization proposed standard

From: Jason <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 19:03:25 +0000 (UTC)

Please do not approve the "TLS authorization" proposal.  I worked extensively 
with TLS in my academic work in grad school, and eventually left the security 
field because improvements to security technologies are so difficult to get 
into use.

The IETF is one of the few bodies who can actually bring security technologies 
into widespread use, but it's vital that you do so without creating business 
deadlocks by imposing patent-encumbered standards!

We've been down this road before: many years ago, I drove an hour out of my 
way to buy a copy of Apache Stronghold so that one of my clients would have a 
legitimate RSA license for their SSL server.  The impedance was real, and I 
remember the parties that were held around the world when their patent 
expired.

Internet security is in a deplorable state, especially with respect to the 
state of the art in cryptographic research.  We can't afford to go through 
years more of patent-mined standards, causing billions of dollars of loss and 
vulnerability, so that RedPhone can make a few million dollars on patent 
licenses.

Please do the right thing: don't let this proposal become a standard.