Are you arguing that the scientists who developed the first atomic bomb share no moral responsibility for the (positive or negative) effects of its use?<p>Dr. Rogeway is morally responsible both for the use of his encryption for cyber ransom and for the use of his encryption to allow private democratic and economic discourse.<p>If you think the negative effects of publicly available encryption outweigh the positive effects, it would be immoral to be working on making better encryption publicly available.<p>Obviously, there is a complicated moral calculus behind which effects are foreseeable&#x2F;likely relative to your other available actions and their foreseeable&#x2F;likely effects.