united-states copyright freedom-of-speech first-amendment
Is it legal to read or distribute the DeCSS Haiku?
<p>TL;DR: Is it legal to download and read the DeCSS Haiku in the US? Is it legal to share it?</p>
<p>I now ask about<br>
The DeCSS haiku<br>
A poem written</p>
<p>As an exercise<br>
Of the First Amendment right<br>
To speak of one's views.</p>
<p>This particular<br>
view was that the DVD<br>
CCA cannot</p>
<p>Use their copyright<br>
Or, perhaps, trade secret right,<br>
To stop a coder</p>
<p>From decrypting<br>
His legally acquired,<br>
Yet encrypted, discs,</p>
<p>And telling others<br>
What he found would decode<br>
The encrypted discs.</p>
<p>To show computer code is speech,<br>
Protected under the law,<br>
He wrote a poem.<br></p>
<p>Four hundred sixty,<br>
Oh, and five more, stanzas<br>
Of geeky haiku.</p>
<p>From these many stanzas,<br>
Another coder, who knows<br>
C, can write their own</p>
<p>Program to decode<br>
Encrypted video discs,<br>
And thus, he proved that</p>
<p>Code is, in fact, speech.<br>
Or so it was thought by some;<br>
Others may argue,</p>
<p>Particularly the<br>
DVD CCA, that<br>
He did not succeed;</p>
<p>Even if code is speech,<br>
This code is unprotected,<br>
And thus illegal.</p>
<p>Who is right, O Muse?<br>
(Or rather, SE users),<br>
Please do inform me,</p>
<p>May I read this poem <br>
Legally in USA?<br>
Or does it infringe</p>
<p>Other rights, which are<br>
Held above free speech in court?<br>
May I read those words,</p>
<p>And also share them,<br>
Written to protest against<br>
IP tyranny?</p>

<p>The “decss haiku” consists, in primary part, of a long string of numbers, split up into lines by syllables. It was a clever joke, but anyone who feels that encryption keys are stripped of any legal protection by making them into “poetry” fundamentally misunderstands the difference between telling a computer to do something and telling a judge to do something.</p>
<p>In any case, however, the finding that the encryption key was covered by trade secret protections was <a href="https://www.cnet.com/culture/court-decss-ban-violated-free-speech/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">reversed on appeal</a>.</p>
