Forwarded From: Nicholas Charles Brawn <ncb05t_private> Encryption Software Not Protected CLEVELAND (AP) -- The government is not violating free speech rights by requiring licenses to export software programs that provide Internet confidentiality, a federal judge has ruled. The high-tech industry wants the government to relax restrictions on exporting encryption programs that prevent electronic eavesdropping. The ability to scramble e-mail messages is also becoming more important as the amount of shopping on the Internet increases. But law enforcement officials, including the Justice Department, worry that criminals or terrorists could use the technology to send communications that police can't decode. U.S. District Judge James S. Gwin ruled encryption isn't a form of speech but simply does a job -- scrambling information. "Among computer software programs, encryption software is especially functional rather than expressive," he wrote in a decision released Monday. Peter Junger, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University who tried to have the restrictions invalidated, said he would appeal. Junger sued after he was prevented from posting an encryption program on his Internet site. The program was intended to be part of his students' course materials on computer law. Since the Internet is available worldwide, posting the program would have been the equivalent of exporting the technology. Junger said the government's licensing requirement is silly because people in other countries already post encryption programs and he could distribute the same information in a book. Anthony Coppolino, the government's lead attorney in the case, said he hadn't seen the decision and declined to comment. -o- Subscribe: mail majordomot_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
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