[free-sklyarov] legal precedent for code as free speech?

[Declan McCullagh]

Also see:

"Encryption ruling from appeals court says code is speech"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01061.html

But let's not confuse what courts have said about source code
with what they've said (or haven't said) about object code.

-Declan



On Sat, Jul 21, 2001 at 11:16:16AM -0700, Will Doherty wrote:
> Court judgment which ruled that software code is protected speech--
> 
> Bernstein v. Dept. of Justice
> 
> EFF was instrumental in getting the export restrictions on encryption 
> lifted. In this precedent-setting case a
> mathematics student won the right to post his encryption code on the 
> Internet. The case has now been
> remanded to the District Court; we are watching the government to ensure 
> that they are fairly implementing
> standards for the export of encryption. EFF is currently in discussion with 
> the government as to the final
> disposition of the case. (updated July 6, 2001)
> At issue: That computer code is protected speech.
> EFF's role: EFF is sponsoring this case.
> More info: http://www.eff.org/Legal/Cases/Bernstein_v_DoJ
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Will Doherty
> Online Activist / Media Relations
> Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
> Web http://www.eff.org
> 
> Electronic Frontier Foundation - Protecting rights in the digital age
> -------
> 
> 
> At 02:06 PM 7/21/2001 -0400, Michael D. Crawford wrote:
> >I believe there have been a couple of court judgements which ruled that 
> >computer
> >program source code is free speech.  This has not yet been tested in the 
> >supreme
> >court, and of course Judge Kaplan ruled that it wasn't in the DeCSS case.
> >
> >Can anyone tell me where I can find the specific legal opinions about this on
> >the web?  I'm going to write to my congressional representatives and want to
> >cite these cases as background.  I think it is helpful to give specific, legal
> >information a congressperson can work with, as they're probably going to 
> >find a
> >letter about freeing russian programmers kind of out of the blue.
> >
> >One of the cases is the Daniel Bernstein case on encryption export.  I believe
> >the appeals court found that source code was free speech, although I'm not 
> >sure
> >they said that directly - I do know they found his free speech rights were
> >infringed.
> >
> >I'm pretty sure there has been one other case, although I don't know if it has
> >made it to the appellate level.  But it's been a while and I don't remember
> >which case this was.
> >
> >When I write the letters I will post one on my web page someone and send 
> >the URL
> >here so you can use them to write your own representatives if you like.
> >
> >Mike
> >--
> >Michael D. Crawford
> >GoingWare Inc. - Expert Software Development and Consulting
> >http://www.goingware.com
> >crawford at goingware.com
> >
> >   Tilting at Windmills for a Better Tomorrow.
> >
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> 
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