Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jessegreathouse 3747 days ago
Software doesn't get patented. Patents apply to "ways of doing things". Incidentally software is used to describe a "way of doing things" but it's the concept that gets patented, not the software.

Also, your assertion that the software is the free speech is a false-presupposition. The private key is data, and data is speech. It's no different than a book or a newspaper, except it's written in a way that only 1 person (device) can understand it.