A computer science professor is renewing a constitutional challenge to U.S. encryption laws, arguing that the government's policy on restricting the export of domestic cryptographic research violates the First Amendment. Daniel Bernstein, the University of Illinois computer science professor who resurrected . . .
A computer science professor is renewing a constitutional challenge to U.S. encryption laws, arguing that the government's policy on restricting the export of domestic cryptographic research violates the First Amendment. Daniel Bernstein, the University of Illinois computer science professor who resurrected the lawsuit in a San Francisco district court on Monday, said he is only trying to help protect computer systems against terrorists and other criminals.

"It's inexcusable that the government is continuing to interfere with my research in cryptography and computer security," Bernstein said.

Until very recently, the U.S. government severely restricted the export of domestic information-scrambling products and know-how. To the government's way of thinking, once such leading-edge technology has made its way into the hands of terrorists, the bad guys could then effectively keep American intelligence agencies in the dark.

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