On Tue, 31 Jul 2001, Tim May wrote:
The critical point is that Congress is now in the business of criminalizing mere speech. mere research. Whether one quibbles about whether hackers "understand" the instructions on how to bypass crypto protections, or whether bombz d00dz "understand" the chemistry and physics of their bombs, the new outlawing of crypto instructions and bomb-making instructions is the issue.
You are absolutely correct. From a human-rights point of view, that is exactly the problem. There are now thought-crimes. However, just because the law happens to be wrong, does not mean that specious crap can prevent a conviction on it in court. It says that "circumvention devices" are illegal, and the opinion of the court is that code -- source *or* executable -- is a "device". At the same time, it says that other information, which promotes *understanding*, but which is not a "device", is legal. At least for now. You can argue about gray areas and fine points all you want in this forum, but if your butt lands in court it will be dismissed as specious crap. Bear