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The Medium Is The Mistake: The Law Of Software For The First Amendment, R. Polk Wagner
The Medium Is The Mistake: The Law Of Software For The First Amendment, R. Polk Wagner
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Is computer software ? code written by humans that instructs a computer to perform certain tasks ? protected by the First Amendment? The answer to this question will significantly impact the course of future technological regulation, and will affect the scope of free expression rights in new media. In this note, I attempt to establish a framework for analysis, noting at the outset that the truly important question in this context is the threshold question: what is "speech or . . . the press"? I first describe two general ways that the Supreme Court has addressed the threshold question. One …