4 ms·
> the first amendment It took great effort to get crypto even recognized under the first amendment -- the USGov kept insisting that source code was not speech.
by kabdib 10y ago
> the first amendment
It took great effort to get crypto even recognized under the first amendment -- the USGov kept insisting that source code was not speech. In the 1990s it was against the law to let foreign nationals have access to the source code to DES. If you had folks from overseas in your organization, technically you couldn't let them see the source for crypto in your product (e.g., you had to wall off pieces of your repositories, and many companies did).
We could see a return to this. Don't take it for granted.
- athenot 10y agoThis can be partially fixed by printing the code on a tshirt. https://www.wired.com/2000/08/court-to-address-decss-t-shirt/ https://www.wired.com/2000/08/court-to-address-decss-t-shirt...
- kabdib 10y agoOr by printing it in a book. There's LOTS of reluctance to ban actual, physical books in the US (and plenty of reasons that any ban would be struck down). That said, up to the mid 90s it was theoretically against the law to show a foreign national a printed-out copy of DES. Crazy. I think it was published in magazines . . .