The most common term I've heard for this type of system is "K of N" key partitioning.  It's used quite commonly in high-security systems, most Certificate Authorities recommend it, and nearly all hardware security devices support it.

Craig Brooksby wrote:
> I once read of a python library for creating a certain type of
> cryptography.  I've forgotten the keyword for this kind of crypto and
> so I can't find it!
> 
> What I'm talking about:  You encrypt a file, and generate three keys,
> and give a key to each of three people.  No single key can open the
> file.  It requires *any two* of the three keys to open it.
> 
> What's the term for this?  Not "federated?"  Is "escrow" in there
> somewhere?  Can one of you crypto-spook types help me name what I'm
> looking for?
> 
> 
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