Now help me, Muse
The History of the DeCSS Haiku outs the unknown author of that famous epic Haiku: Seth Schoen himself, the author of this article. And while it’s historically interesting, I’m pointing to it because it adds some observations to the case for considering programming as speech, and because of something Schoen said about 2/3 of the way into the article:
An observer might be shocked to compare the Bernstein and Corley cases. She would perceive that the courts have concluded that it’s wrong to censor software in the name of preventing terrorism, but it’s all right when what’s at stake is the ability to copy movies.
This observer isn’t shocked. If we keep the politicians who are dragging us along in their headlong rush to become the Corporate States of America, I think we’ll see even more rulings like that. It would not surprise me to see conservative judges protecting the right to publish how to blow up a subway, but denying the right to publish how to blow up a bank. Don’t suppose that this is wild-eyed radicalism: conservatives and libertarians have told us over and over again that things owned by the people in common (as most subways are, by cities) are worthless and not worth protecting. It’s not like they’re keeping it a secret.
But even the present case — where freedom of speech trumps public safety, but not corporate profits — shows the huge difference between the human values the Right are pulling out of our society like the weeds they think they are, and the corporate values they’re planting in their place. How long will it be before this country doesn’t stand for anything higher than the values of a fly by night strip mining corporation?