Apple vs. FBI: software as “free speech” – Heise Newsticker

(Picture: Brandt Luke anger / Wikimedia)

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The! litigation between Apple and the FBI, it’s not just about encryption and national Security. An important role is played by the fundamental question: When is software protected by the First Amendment

The demands of the FBI to Apple also raises the legal question of whether a person can be forced to write software , In the dispute over the access to the encrypted data in the iPhone a terrorist, the FBI Apple had requested the deployment of an update. Apple cites in its application to have the appropriate disposal of the Federal District Court in California, on the protection of the granted First Amendment right to free speech. This also covering the right to remain silent.

Basically, be clarified, that software can be protected as “speech” by the First Amendment, commented A. Michael Froomkin, law professor at the University of Miami, told the Wall Street Journal. What matters here whether a judge programming as a “talking” action look like writing a song or a book, which would mean a high level of protection, or whether he regarded it only as a functional, mechanical process. This was the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which also appeals from Apple would land, already held in the so-called Amber Case 1999th

The mathematician Daniel J. Bernstein had in 1990 an encryption method names “Snuffle” developed and written an application to do so. When he wanted to offer his work overseas, the US State Department Snuffle declared war material for which applies an export ban. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the source code of the program is a form of scientific expression that could not restrict the government. However, that is not generally for any kind of software. In each case, the court must decide whether a software is protected by the First Amendment, and if so, how far that protection goes. (nb)