SAN FRANCISCO — Federal law that limits the export of "strong encryption" technology is unconstitutional, according to a decision handed down Thursday (May 6) by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court upheld a 1997 ruling that source code is protected as free speech under the First Amendment. The U.S. Department of Commerce can appeal the decision.
The case stems from a 1995 suit filed by Daniel Bernstein, a Berkeley graduate student who had devised an encryption method called Snuffle. Bernstein, now a University of Illinois math professor, had hoped to post Snuffle to the Internet but was blocked by regulations.
The ruling is further evidence that current export laws need to be changed, said Jim Bidzos, chief executive of RSA Data Security Inc. (San Mateo, Calif.). While the ruling doesn't apply to shrink-wrapped software, it creates enough loopholes to render export restrictions useless, he said.
