Forwarded-by: "--Todd Lappin-->" <telstar@wired.com>
From Wired News: http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/6436.html
US Seeks to Stay Court's Crypto Order by Rebecca Vesely 6:02pm 27.Aug.97.PDT The Justice Department is seeking an emergency stay of a ruling by a US District Court in San Francisco that granted a University of Illinois professor permission to export his encrypted email program. Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled in Bernstein v. Department of State that Daniel Bernstein can export his Snuffle program and make it available online without an export license. Her landmark ruling holds that software programs are literary works protected under the First Amendment. The Justice Department told Bernstein attorney Cindy Cohn on Wednesday afternoon that it will seek an emergency stay on the preliminary injunction allowing Bernstein to export Snuffle. The department is expected to file papers Wednesday night or Thursday morning, Cohn said. Justice officials were not immediately available for comment. "This is serious," Cohn said. "They feel that national security will be breached. But our opinion is that he has the right to publish his material." In what is called an ex parte emergency stay, the Justice Department asked Patel to reconsider her decision to grant a preliminary injunction. If Patel decides not to reverse her decision, the department can ask the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to override her decision. "It is unlikely Patel will give it to them," said John Gilmore, founding board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which was a primary sponsor of Bernstein in the case. "If she does, we will continue with the appeal process and try to make the decision stick." The decision could affect not just the fate of Bernstein's research, but the US encryption export policy. Patel said in her decision that current export encryption regulations "are an unconstitutional prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment." Copyright =A9 1993-97 Wired Ventures Inc. and affiliated companies. All rights reserved.