[privacy] Judge: Man Can't Be Forced to Divulge PGP Passphrase

["Paul Ferguson" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Via the C|Net "Iconoclast" Blog.

[snip]

A federal judge in Vermont has ruled that prosecutors can't force a
criminal defendant accused of having illegal images on his hard drive to
divulge his PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) passphrase.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Niedermeier ruled that a man charged with
transporting child pornography on his laptop across the Canadian border has
a Fifth Amendment right not to turn over the passphrase. The Fifth
Amendment protects the right to avoid self-incrimination.

Niedermeier tossed out a grand jury's subpoena that directed Sebastien
Boucher to provide "any passwords" used with the Alienware laptop.
"Compelling Boucher to enter the password forces him to produce evidence
that could be used to incriminate him," the judge wrote in an order dated
November 29 that went unnoticed until this week. "Producing the password,
as if it were a key to a locked container, forces Boucher to produce the
contents of his laptop."

U.S. v. Boucher promises to be a landmark case, especially if this ruling
is upheld on appeal.

[snip]

More:
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9834495-38.html

I hate that this case involves some scumbag who may have been
involved with kiddie pr0n, but is this ruling is allowed to stand,
it has broad implications which could indeed be viewed as a
positive for privacy rights. 

- - ferg

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP Desktop 9.6.3 (Build 3017)

wj8DBQFHYzeyq1pz9mNUZTMRAoM0AJ9dmiXo5p6j3Xj58f4ndBbR+MlmtACgpmuZ
6/uUd6NQAo0QtXrDj3r/AZ8=
=TyJW
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

_______________________________________________
privacy mailing list
privacy () whitestar linuxbox org
http://www.whitestar.linuxbox.org/mailman/listinfo/privacy