A recpie is no less a form of speech for it's need of the use an oven. A muscal score is no less speech because of it's need of use of an instrument. Mathematical expressions are considered speech. Why should code be any different just because it requires use of a comptuer?
If someone chose to write a document in LaTeX should be considered different for constitutional purposes as compared to it being written on paper?
Programmers communicating ideas between each other inevitably use code to communicate. Why shouldn't this speech be protected?
If code truly was "just a blueprint", why do we care so much about how code is expressed? Why do we care how easily it is for one to comprehend and understand and in modern times emphasise that "code meant for humans to read, and only incidentally for computers to interpret"?
If a company, made up my the coordinated/chaotic movement of individuals, can be considered to express speech, why shouldn't a computer program, embodied with the spirit of the designers not be considered to express speech?
I am not sure a musical score alone expresses any opinion. The song that comes with it might.
LaTeX is rather the mean by which the text is written, like if it was typed on paper or engraved in a wall. But the text being written would express an opinion.
Developers caring about code readability and style isn't different from engineers having strict guideline on how to express a design in a blue print, making tolerances explicit and the overall design clear to read. That is good craftsmanship but not the expression of an opinion.
The only limit I can think of is when the object itself might have a symbolic meaning. The blueprint of a swastika would be more than just a technical design.
I can also turn your argument on its head. What if I express in code the design of an AK47. It would be free speech. Then for the same reason than a musical score requires an instrument, a 3d model requires a 3d printer. Is the 3d printed fully working AK47 the expression of free speech?
> I am not sure a musical score alone expresses any opinion. The song that comes with it might.
Unfortunately the law disagrees.
> LaTeX is rather the mean by which the text is written, like if it was typed on paper or engraved in a wall. But the text being written would express an opinion.
Unfortunately case law disagrees (273 F.3d 446).
> Developers caring about code readability and style isn't different from engineers having strict guideline on how to express a design in a blue print.
See 176 F.3d 1132 and 192 F.3d 1308.
> Is the 3d printed fully working AK47 the expression of free speech?
No, but the program that produced 3d printed is considered speech (logical consequence of 60 USPQ2d at 1964-1965). This speech is of course subject to restrictions (492 U.S. 115, 126). Note that forms of speech that describe how to construct weapons may not be protected (see 461 F.2d 1119 for an example of explosive devices).
"Expressing an opinion" is by no means a necessary condition of free speech. Certain types of speech, particularly political speech, have a greater degree of protection than commercial speech, for example. But they're all covered under the First Amendment.
