MORE FROM ZDNET:
		Government loses crypto ruling
		ZDNet Topic: Security
		Encryption legislation pushes ahead
		Crypto Bill Passes House Committee

That was the consensus of Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) officials, lawyers and cryptographers during a press conference called Friday to address the ruling, which authorizes Daniel Bernstein, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, to distribute his encryption program over the Internet.

"The court adopted our basic analysis, which is that the First Amendment is triggered here" in the government's barring Bernstein from publishing his program online, said Cindy Cohn, one of Bernstein's attorneys.

The majority 2-to-1 decision, handed down Thursday by a three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, could face appeal by the U.S. Justice Department. But Cohn said the ruling clearly shows that publishing encryption code online meets "the simplest First Amendment tests."

		Watch the ZDTV CyberCrime report -- and the Bernstein press conference

What's more, assuming it's upheld on further appeal, the ruling allows anyone within the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit -- an area that includes California's Silicon Valley and Redmond, Wash. -- to distribute strong encryption programs without first having to get a license from the government, Cohn and Bernstein's other attorneys said.

EFF cofounder John Gilmore said the group is particularly pleased with the ruling because it proves that "if the current administration's policy couldn't be changed by political means, it could be changed in the courts." (The EFF has been a sponsor of Bernstein's case since it was filed in 1995.)

Bernstein: 'I feel great'
For his part, Bernstein said he was delighted with the ruling.

"I feel great," said Bernstein, who wrote the program, which he dubbed "Snuffle," as a doctoral student at the University of California at Berkeley in 1995. "I'm bouncing off the ceiling right now because the court has told me I'm free to publish my work."

	Add your comments to the bottom of this page.

He said he doesn't think of himself as a First Amendment advocate.

"I'm just an academic" who wants the right to distribute his scholarly work, Bernstein said.

But the case will have an undeniable impact on the First Amendment rights of Internet users to distribute encryption, as well as on consumers' right to use it as a privacy tool, EFF officials said.

EFF Director of Legal Services Shari Steele said the ruling makes clear certain First Amendment problems that remain in pending legislation on liberalizing the encryption policy, including the much-publicized SAFE bill.

Diffie: 'Victory for common sense'
Noted cryptographer Whitfield Diffie said during the press conference that the ruling "is a victory for common sense that is much broader than encryption, and for that matter much broader than science."

'I'm bouncing off the ceiling right now because the court has told me I'm free to publish my work' -- Daniel Bernstein

Officials at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which filed a friend of the court brief in the case, also praised Thursday's ruling.

"The 9th Circuit has provided a sweeping opinion in support of privacy and the freedom to use encryption," EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said in a statement. "This is a forward-looking judgement that touches on many of the issues of greatest concern to Internet users, including the right to speak anonymously and the right to information privacy."

The government has 45 days to appeal the decision, which upheld a lower court ruling, Bernstein's attorneys said.