[LINK] U.S. lets scientist post source code for encryption software on web site

[Greg Taylor]

At 16:37 26/02/00 +1100, Tony Barry wrote:
>Source: Edupage, 25 February 2000
>
>U.S. LETS SCIENTIST POST SOURCE CODE FOR ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE ON
>WEB SITE
>The U.S. government has notified computer scientist Daniel J.
>Bernstein that he is free to publish the source code for his
>encryption software online, following a lengthy legal battle that
>began in 1993 when the State Department prohibited Bernstein from
>posting the code because of encryption laws at the time.  An
>appeals court ruling last May found that preventing Bernstein
>from posting the code infringed on his First Amendment rights and
>restricted scientific expression....

There's considerably more to this story than this bland report might imply.
 The US Justice Department government has been quite concerned about
successive court rulings in Bernstein's favour and they have lodged appeal
after appeal to try to get the decision overturned.  The reason for the
concern is that this one case could turn US crypto policy on its head on
First Amendment grounds if it ever got to the US Supreme Court.  The more
cynical observers are convinced that the recent changes to US crypto policy
freeing up public domain source code have been aimed squarely at killing
off Bernstein's case without causing too much collateral damage to crypto
retrictions generally.

A more extensive report on the issue:
Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell Encryption
by Declan McCullagh
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,33651,00.html


Greg

P.S.  Tony, do we have to have all these Edupage articles?  I find them of
little use since they're usually old news, superficial, and lacking any
links to the original source.  Perhaps those who find these articles
valuable could subscribe to Edupage themselves?