? Can I Use the DES from UNIX passwd Source code?

[Charles Mills]

In article <8557 at alice.UUCP> ark at alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) writes:
>In article <3600017 at hpiacla.HP.COM>, jimb at hpiacla.HP.COM (Jim Brandt) writes:
>> ... but if I used the algorithm from the source code of passwd in 
>> another product, do I need to worry about copyright?
>
>Yes you do.

Well, perhaps I'm just being picky, but it's my understanding that you
can't copyright an algorithm, only the `tangible' form (I think that's
the adjective they use) embodying the algorithm--- namely, the
source code itself.  The ideas are free.  If you use the actual source
code _verbatim_ then you are probably violating a copyright
(depending on what you use it for, what Unix you have, what license
you have, etc.).
-- 
  Fred the Pedant (...!cornell!oravax!fred)   --Picky, picky, picky--