Computer Programs as Protec

This may be of interest to the CNI-Copyright list.

--
Martha Luehrmann
<martha_luehrmann[_at_]macmail.lbl.gov>


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> Date: 4/18/96 5:19 PM

> From: George C. Ruben

> Date: 4/18/96 9:18 AM

> From: Brian O'Connell

> 

> Denying the government's motion for dismissal in

> mathematician Daniel Bernstein's suit against the State

> Department, Judge Marilyn Patel in the Northern District of

> California ruled Monday that source code in Bernstein's

> cryptographic algorithm, "Snuffle," is speech that is

> protected from prior restraint by the First Amendment. 

> This is the first time a U.S. court has ruled that source

> code is speech under First Amendment analysis. Previously,

> courts have held that software is speech for copyright law

> only. 

> 

> The decision states in part:

> 

> "This court can find no meaningful difference between

> computer language, particularly high-level languages as

> defined above, and German or French....Like music and

> mathematical equations, computer language is just that,

> language, and it communicates information either to a

> computer or to those who can read it....Thus, even if

> Snuffle source code, which is easily compiled into object

> code for the computer to read and easily used for

> encryption, is essentially functional, that does not remove

> it from the realm of speech....For the purposes of First

> Amendment analysis, this court finds that source code is

> speech."