4 ms·

Could someone please post a comment or link on the state of constitutional protection for strong encryption? I think I've read that the courts have ruled that

Could someone please post a comment or link on the state of constitutional protection for strong encryption? I think I've read that the courts have ruled that dissemination and use of strong crypto algorithms is protected by the First Amendment, but I'm not sure of that.

frostmatthew 12y ago
Bernstein v. United States[1] maybe? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States
- tdaltonc 12y ago
  and Junger v.Daley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junger_v._Daley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junger_v._Daley http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1342657?sid=21105098883821&uid=4&uid=2 http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1342657?sid=2110509888...
  - declan 12y ago
    This is the big one. The late Peter Junger, who brought this case, was a principled civil libertarian and law professor who deserves to be remembered for dealing the final blow to the federal government's anti-encryption regime. He was the first person to secure a precedential court decision that said this: "Because computer source code is an expressive means for the exchange of information and ideas about computer programming, we hold that it is protected by the First Amendment." http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1074126.html http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1074126.html (The 9th Circuit in _Bernstein_ didn't go that far, despite valiant efforts by EFF, as I recall it.) Peter was a computer tinkerer as well as a lawyer. He once did me the favor of speaking to a class I taught at Case Western, and, in addition to discussing his own encryption case, talked about setting up a mail server --I recall the school let him place a colo'd box in one of their server rooms because he was an emeritus. He also wrote an article called "You Can't Patent Software: Patenting Software Is Wrong": http://samsara-blog.blogspot.com/ http://samsara-blog.blogspot.com/ TLDR: One big reason why we haven't seen a proposed US law restricting mobile device encryption today is because of what Peter Junger did in the 1990s.
    - chernevik 12y ago
      Thanks, all

frostmatthew 12y ago

Bernstein v. United States[1] maybe? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States

tdaltonc 12y ago
and Junger v.Daley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junger_v._Daley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junger_v._Daley http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1342657?sid=21105098883821&uid=4&uid=2 http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1342657?sid=2110509888...
- declan 12y ago
  This is the big one. The late Peter Junger, who brought this case, was a principled civil libertarian and law professor who deserves to be remembered for dealing the final blow to the federal government's anti-encryption regime. He was the first person to secure a precedential court decision that said this: "Because computer source code is an expressive means for the exchange of information and ideas about computer programming, we hold that it is protected by the First Amendment." http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1074126.html http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1074126.html (The 9th Circuit in _Bernstein_ didn't go that far, despite valiant efforts by EFF, as I recall it.) Peter was a computer tinkerer as well as a lawyer. He once did me the favor of speaking to a class I taught at Case Western, and, in addition to discussing his own encryption case, talked about setting up a mail server --I recall the school let him place a colo'd box in one of their server rooms because he was an emeritus. He also wrote an article called "You Can't Patent Software: Patenting Software Is Wrong": http://samsara-blog.blogspot.com/ http://samsara-blog.blogspot.com/ TLDR: One big reason why we haven't seen a proposed US law restricting mobile device encryption today is because of what Peter Junger did in the 1990s.
  - chernevik 12y ago
    Thanks, all