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the fifth amendment rears its ugly(?) head…
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In these days of disappearing civil rights, it’s always nice to read a story about one of those rights being upheld. Especially at the expense of those who are trying to relieve us of said rights. Interesting interpretation of the Fifth. Grok it in its fullness.
“In Vermont, US Magistrate Judge Jerome Niedermeier has ruled that forcing someone to divulge the password to decrypt their hard drive violates the 5th Amendment. Border guards testify that they saw child pornography on the defendant’s laptop when the PC was on, but they made the mistake of turning it off and were unable to access it again because the drive was protected by PGP. Although prosecutors offered many ways to get around the 5th Amendment protections, the Judge would have none of that and quashed the grand jury subpoena requesting the defendant’s PGP passphrase.”
4 Comments
E2001
August 22nd, 2008
at 7:44pm
Funny how the new gestapo always scream “child p.o.r.n.” whenever they want to look into someone’s computer. You’d thinkl they would come up with a new line.
Hey, did ya notice the spelling on the word p.o.r.n.? Yeah, I had to do that so my post would get through. It seems that WordPress is ALSO against free speech, as it won’t allow the word “p.o.r.n.” to be posted! Funny, considering this is an article ABOUT p.o.r.n.. Did ya hear that, WordPress? I said P.O.R.N.!
P.O.R.N.! P.O.R.N.! P.O.R.N.! P.O.R.N.! P.O.R.N.! P.O.R.N.! P.O.R.N.! P.O.R.N.!
David
August 23rd, 2008
at 1:01pm
Well……….if it WAS child you-know-what, there probably (change that - CERTAINLY!) is a case for forcing a pass-word out of someone but where, exactly do you draw the line? It`s only the border guards` word against his. Just a thought - how, when and where did they allegedly see the computer running in the first place?
leftystrat
August 24th, 2008
at 8:58am
I disagree, David. The ruling was based upon the 5th. If someone doesn’t have to testify against himself in court, he doesn’t have to give up the data… it’s the same thing (at least according to the court).
leftystrat
August 24th, 2008
at 8:59am
E2001: why change anything when it works?
As for `dirty words,’ I agree. I got nailed in comments once too.