"Chipmaker Sues To Silence Security Researchers,"
in the Netherlands. For my thoughts on the First Amendment and speech that reveals security breaches, see my Crime-Facilitating Speech (Stanford Law Review, 2005), though of course the legal analysis would apply only to U.S. lawsuits.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Dutch Court Denies Chipmaker's Request to Enjoin Academics' Publication of Security Flaws:
- "Chipmaker Sues To Silence Security Researchers,"
The bigger problem, from just thinking about it for a moment, would be that the company is claiming to stand up for an interest that is not their own. In common law terms: the researchers probably don't have a duty of care towards the company here, but the company is claiming to defend the duty of care the university might have towards the general public, public transportation systems, etc.
The free speach angle would be dealt with by the court in a relatively relaxed (by US standards) way, in that the court would weigh the interests at stake, while tilting the scales only a little in favour of the university. (After all, the constitution says that you are free to speak subject to your responsibility under the law, and that law includes the civil code's unlawful act regime.) In this case, though, I don't see how the university could have a duty of care towards the companyhere , so this whole thing is a non-starter as far as I'm concerned.
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