Free Roman Storm
Roman Storm is a developer from Seattle who contributed code to a privacy-preserving open source software project. For that, the US Government is trying to throw him in prison. Take action now to defend the first amendment right to publish code and protect the future of digital privacy.
Letter
To Whom it May Concern in the Trump Administration,
We write to you urgently to demand action in the case of Roman Storm, a software developer who is on trial for doing what tens of thousands of people across the USA do every day: contributing open source code to a software project. It is his first amendment right to do so, yet now he is facing years in prison.
Why? Because Roman Storm helped to create a privacy-preserving financial tool–a neutral, “permissionless” piece of software that could be used by good or bad actors alike, similar to paper cash or physical gold, but that ran on the digital Ethereum blockchain network.
As detailed in a 2024 report from the House Judiciary Committee, government and corporate overreach into the personal financial lives of Americans is rampant. Its authors stated: “The pattern of financial surveillance uncovered in the report raises serious concerns about federal law enforcement’s and financial institutions’ commitment to respecting Americans’ privacy rights and fundamental civil liberties.”
Roman Storm was working toward an alternative to this broken system of financial surveillance. The effects of his unjust prosecution are wide-ranging. His charges have chilled many developers’ belief in the right to build tools that further our civil liberties, and made them fear to contribute to open source software projects that underpin essential Internet infrastructure and make all of us more secure online.
We need a future with more Roman Storms, not less. That is why we are calling on your administration to take the following immediate steps in order of priority:
Instruct FinCen to quickly issue clarifying guidance that “non-custodial” software tools that do not take possession of users’ digital assets do not constitute “money transmission” under the Bank Secrecy Act or related regulations.
Instruct the Office of Legal Counsel to publish an interpretation that cuts off any avenue to unjustly jail open source software developers for what is done with their code.
Order the Department of Justice to drop their case against Roman Storm, and a similar case against the developers of the Samourai Wallet Bitcoin tool.
Should the preceding be unachievable, pardon Roman Storm
By design, open source code cannot be limited or confined by those who create it. This great freedom, paired with the first amendment, is part of what makes US technology renowned the world over. If we start punishing those who build the infrastructure of our country for uses they cannot control, and allow Big Brother into every aspect of our online lives, we will all be the poorer for it.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
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