Other Directory Sites: SeekWonder | Directory Owners Forum
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Fri Aug 21 1998 - 17:20:25 ADT
DONTstaym@SPAMaccessdata.com
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 16:11:23 -0600
http://samsara.law.cwru.edu/comp_law/jvd/pressrel-070798.txt
Excerpt:
In a related case in California brought by mathematics professor
Daniel Bernstein, Federal District Court Judge Patel held that
computer programs are speech that is protected by the First Amendment,
but Judge Gwin rejected that argument, saying: ``The Bernstein court's
assertion that `language equals protected speech' is unsound. `Speech'
is not protected simply because we write it in a language.'' It is
Judge Gwin's position that computer source code is a purely functional
device: ``The court in Bernstein misunderstood the significance of
source code's functionality. Source code is `purely functional,' in a
way that the Bernstein Court's examples of instructions, manuals, and
recipes are not. Unlike instructions, a manual, or a recipe, source
code actually performs the function it describes. While a recipe
provides instructions to a cook, source code is a device, like
embedded circuitry in a telephone, that actually does the function of
encryption.''
I, personally, would love to see ANY C code execute on ANYTHING without
being compiled.
-- Mike Stay Cryptographer / Programmer AccessData Corp. mailto:staym@accessdata.com
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Fri Aug 21 1998 - 17:20:25 ADT