Is Bitcoin’s Code a Form of Free Speech?
Bitcoin as free speech has been a popular argument in the Bitcoin underground since the cryptocurrency’s release in 2008. Software a Form of Free Speech. The claims are based on arguments from before the days of Bitcoin, which posit software as free speech. In 1999, journalist Eric Corley explained to readers how to acquire DeCSS, a program that would....
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Does the OFAC not know that code is speech? Yesterday, we covered the EFF’s demands for clarity around the Tornado Cash situation and the case they’re defending. Today, we’ll dig into a simple idea, the reason code is protected under free speech laws. As it has for decades in the US. As a bonus, we’ll […]
Financial commerce, the exchange of money and currency, is indistinguishable from speech. Therefore, it deserves the exact same respect and "freedom of speech" protections afforded to the utterances of the street-corner preacher, the independent journalist, the newspaper publisher, the internet blogger and so on. Financial commerce is speech, and should be free. "Freedom of Speech" by xoxolaxbabexoxo at deviantart. Despite all of the "freedom of speech" and "free speech" talk we hear, speech today is anything but free. This ranges from what you can and can't say in public or in print or on....
The Future of Free Speech Is Here The history of free speech is long and tumultuous, spanning millennia and every corner of the world. The current state of free speech is constantly changing as technology progresses, new laws are passed, and social norms change. Anomus Shaking Things Up Anomus is not just another project built […]
When US servicemen Bradley Manning was found guilty on 20 counts in connection with leaking classified military information, experts mused that bitcoin was instrumental in the continuing operation of WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing website that he helped. In a panel at the Inside Bitcoins conference last week, several free speech and journalism experts debated the role that the virtual currency has in maintaining First Amendment rights. Michael Terpin, co-founder of bitcoin-friendly venture capital organization BitAngels, drew a correlation between free speech and the right to spend. "These....
May 22, 2015 was a special day in the tug-of-war of Between government, Bitcoin, and other encryption-related issues. On that day, the United Nations issued a report declaring encryption as a form of free speech. What is encryption? The SANS institute’s definition of encryption is: The UN’s report mentioned that certain governments wanted to keep a less....