On Mon, 5 May 1997, Ernest Hua wrote:
I don't completely like the first amendment argument because it is solely based on claiming that software is, first and foremost, expression. In fact, software has mechanism and side effect of mechanism. If software were strictly expression, it is hard to imagine how a multi-billion industry could have spawned from such an inert practice. Another example: one could argue that crafting an grenade launcher is artistic expression, but surely few would consider THAT argument when faced with such an "expressive" neighbor.
I concur. A citizen has the right to manufacture a grenade launcher under the Second Amendment (irrespective of what judges scared into submission by Roosevelt et al may have ruled), not the First.