Gagging sounds

DailyTech.com has a blog entry by Tom Corelis about the MIT hacker story:

A federal judge lifted the temporary gag order placed on three MIT students Tuesday, who were originally set to give a presentation at DEF CON that outlined a number of security holes in the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s RFID-based fare infrastructure... In his ruling, Federal Judge George O’Toole said that the chances of the MBTA prevailing on its claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act were minimal; it tried to invoke the Act’s protections from 'transmission' of a damaging computer program for the trio’s verbal presentation. Critics feared the courts’ seemingly hasty decision had inadvertently attacked free speech, because the Act only prohibits the transmission of 'code programs' in a computer, not damaging presentations. O’Toole’s interpretation equated free speech with computer hacking, feared some.