The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a outstanding digital rights group, has filed an amicus temporary in help of Roman Storm, a developer of the crypto privateness protocol Tornado Cash (TORN).
Storm has been charged with conspiracy to facilitate cash laundering, working an unlicensed cash transmitter, and violating sanctions in relation to his work on the Tornado Cash protocol.
“The government’s prosecution raises larger civil liberties concerns that could chill the future development of privacy-enhancing technologies more broadly,” the EFF wrote in the brief.
The EFF argues that Storm’s prosecution threatens open-source innovation as the core issue in the case of holding developers responsible for how their tools are used, instead of prosecuting bad actors directly, could have a chilling effect on privacy-focused software development.
“Nearly all privacy and anonymity protective software tools are dual-use tools. Like a physical mask or paper cash, they provide needed, often critical protections for users, but can also be used by bad actors to help hide their crimes,” the EFF wrote.
In the prosecution of Storm, the government is relying on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which allows it to impose economic sanctions and restrict transactions during national emergencies. This application, the EFF argues, is inappropriate.
“If the government believes it is appropriate to criminalize these technologies, it must seek relief from Congress and not rely on IEEPA and the other laws deployed in this prosecution, or, worse, attempt to bootstrap ancillary activities even further removed from any criminal acts into the ambit of these laws,” the EFF wrote.
If Congress desires to control instruments like Tornado Cash, the EFF argues, it has the authority to cross a regulation that clearly distinguishes authorized from unlawful use, however the prosecution on this case fails to supply that readability.
The TORN token is up almost 50% within the final month, in accordance with market information, on optimism of a good final result for Storm.
Storm is due again in court docket in April.
