On Wed, 1 Nov 2000, Jonathan Ellis wrote:
> > RSA algorithms are being
> > broken with efforts such as www.distributed.net
> 
> Consider that it still took distributed.net 250 days to break a 56-bit
> key...

distributed.net didn't break a 56-bit RSA key, they broke a 56-bit RC5 key and
a couple of 56bit DES keys.  The RSA keys used in PGP start at 256 bits and go
up to 1024.  You can't compare a 56-bit RC5 key to a 56-bit RSA key, RC5 and
RSA are different algorithms and the key sizes aren't directly comparable. 
I'm sure that the 56-bit RSA key used by netrek could be cracked in minutes
with the hardware most people have at their disposal.

> > Does expiration of RSA copyright have any impact on ease of
> > cracking RSA key size?
> 
> No.

It was a patent expiration.  Copyrights no longer expire.