The brief of amici curiae in Universal City Studio, et al v. 2006 says that computer code is speech, and should be protected as such. No big deal there.
I do like how they talk about Perl, used in some of the examples, though. I've added the emphasis:
We chose this snippet of Perl for two reasons. First, when compared to the Visual BASIC, it is apparent that more symbolic characters and fewer natural-looking words are used, illustrating the variety of programming languages. Though it looks less like a natural text language, its meaning is as clear to those who read Perl as is this sentence to those who read English.(4) ___________________ 4. If "$plain_text = $file_key ^ $xor_block" seems unapproachable, consider what those not trained in the language of legal citation would make of "111 F.Supp.2d 294, 326 (S.D.N.Y. 2000)." Each is meaningless to those unfamiliar with the language; but each is more precise and compact for those who do understand than would be an English narrative equivalent.
