On Tue, 5 Sep 2000, Gary Jeffers wrote:
then give his opinion as to wheather it was legal or not. If the lawyer said that it was legal and gave his opinion in writing, then the client could proceed without out worry. The lawyer's opinion would stop any criminal prosecution.
Does this really work? I can't imagine this working for murder (but on the other hand, that's a bad example since it's unreasonable to imagine murder legal in the USA). Even for something like tax laws or other complicated regulations this sounds dubious.
I wonder if this would work with publishing crypt code. I think it might put the lawyer at risk. If we had a lawyer who really thought
Well, a lawyer who advised a client that something was legal when in fact it wasn't might have a problem.
that publishing crypt code on the Internet was legal and wasn't afraid of sticking his neck out then his published statement on the Internet to this might open the floodgates of crypt code Internet posting for Americans.
Such a statement would help, but more because it would be from an expert on the law than because of any legal shield. I am not a lawyer, and so I'd like to have one's opinion before doing anything that could land me in jail. That kind of thing.
Donald has stated that the law in this area is quite vague. I would think even if the law prohibited it, then the law would be unconstitu- tional and therefore null and void.
Prohibiting what - publishing cryptography code? In any case, even if the law is unconstitutional, you may have to go through several layers of court cases to prove it. c.f. Bernstein. :( -David