DeCSS was an open source project, allowing anyone to view and edit the source under a public license. The repercussions of the lawsuits attempt to remove the code brought about a heated argument over the property state of software source code. Ultimately the court ruled that software was not protected under freedom of expression laws and made it unlawful to link to the DeCSS source. Once again, there is a fundamental flaw in this ruling is the ignorance of government officials. The idea that a source code file is not expression may vary well be enforced on other similar computer documents such as web pages and word processing documents.
Source code is a raw file, as raw as web pages and word processing documents.
Source code must be converted to object code by a compiler for the software to function. Web pages must be parsed by a web browser to be seen. Word processing documents must be interpreted by a word processor to be viewable. All of them are created by human thought and expression and should be treated equally. Copyright 2001, Andy Ruff.