More On Encryption Source Code Appeal

ill-logic writes "Here's an article at News.com that gives some more detailed info on the appeals court ruling overturning a case involving a programmer posting source code for his crypto program on the net. The judge ruled that his code is protected under the first amendment. At least there is one non-programmer out there that knows there are benefits in programmers swapping code. "

Comments

Source Code is Speech

[geoGIF]

While many are celebrating this ruling due to the crypto export implications, I think real victory is for the deeper issue: is source code speech? While the fight's not over, I'm very encouraged that the appelate court reaffirmed that source code is expressive and is a form of speech (at least within the narrow context of this case).

The Junger case was similar. It involved a law professor who wanted to post crypto source code for his "Computers and the Law" class. A lower court (going against the ruling of the lower court in this case), sided with the government and dismissed the expressive nature of source code due to its functional aspect. They basically said source code wasn't speech. This was, IMHO, a bad bad ruling. I really find it offensive that the court would assert that a language such as C that I spend a large portion of my time reading and writing (often just for fun), isn't speech. I use computer languages to communicate ideas. That's speech. The judge (Gwinn) in the Junger case just didn't "get it." I've read this ruling, and it's obvious that at least some of the judges (or more likely, their aids) do "get it."

Let's just hope that if this goes to the Supreme Court, they're as enlightened.