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Paints of painters, sculptors statue and cryptographer code.
For millennia, the creators have fought to express themselves through their chosen media.
Around 430 BC, Greek sculptor Fidius It is said that his art (with a side of treacherous politics) was asked to die in jail after accusations of impurity.
Fidius coined himself and Statesman Periks on Athena Parthenos’s shield, which was an incompetent act of Hubis in front of the gods.
Nearly two and a half thousand years later, Cryptographer Daniel Bernstein fought the US government on its constitutional right to express himself through the code – and won.
On this day: code is speech
Twenty -six years ago today, Judge Merlin Patel Government That computer code should be considered a speech and thus preserved under the first amendment, even if that code represents powerful encryption technology.
Bernstein filed a case against the US State Department and later Judge Patel later informed the Commerce Department described as “Bhag Political Expressions”.
As we touched a retrospective last week, at that time the US government classified cryptographic equipment, which had a major shape with a larger size than 40 bits as weapons.
This meant that anyone had to register as a weapon dealer to provide cryptography software or otherwise available to anyone outside the US – including a doctoral candidates studying mathematics in UC Berkeley like Bernstein.
Therefore, when Bernstein contacted the state department about publishing the source code, instructions and academic paper, which described a new encryption method called Snowfal, authorities called the work “mons’ in arms rules under international traffic.
But the code on any licensed governance – the medium through which the cryptographers express their ideas, ideas and principles – was unconstitutional in Bernstein’s perspective. Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) then Sponsored His suit, followed by its second major case Steve jackson game In the early 90s.
The courts biased with Bernstein and EFF in a historic decision a year later, deciding that the government should protect the freedom of the cryptographer. This is their language.
The case paved the way for easily implementing e-commerce and all types of private enterprises for strong encryption, there was no small part for the forward-minded judge Patel.
Patel wrote: “Using the source code, a cryptographer can express algorithm ideas with precise and functioning rigor, which is difficult to achieve otherwise … The need for accurately expressed hypotheses and formal empirical testing, of course, is not unique for science of cryptography; it is not unique for science of cryptography; It is not unique for the science of Craptography; it is not unique; this field is preferred in this field, however, the source code is preferred in this field, the source code is preferred in this field, the source coded in this field, the source coded in this field, the source code, the source coded in this field, the source code, the source coded in this field, the source code, the source coded in this field, the source cod in this field, the source cod in this field, the source cod in this field, the source code in this field, the source code in this field, the source code in this field Is.”
It is clear that without the decision of Bernstein, the development and release of bitcoin can be severely slowed. After all, Satoshi (if they were in America) will need to obtain a license to share bitcoin source code, then they will have to do doxing with the government immediately. how convenient!
Fortunately, Bernstein chose to fight.
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