Re: Judge orders defendant to decrypt PGP-protected laptop - CNET News

[Shailesh Rangari <shailesh.sf () gmail com>]

Its strange that the act of revealing the password has essentially  
been termed underprivileged by the courts in the mentioned case.
The Supreme Court on earlier occasions has termed acts of providing  
fingerprints, blood sample etc. underprivileged because in principle  
they do not reveal a persons thoughts or knowledge of a particular  
fact and also because possession of ones own fingerprint is an  
undeniable fact.

In case the Supreme Court concurs with the decision of the District  
Court the options Mr. Boucher would have are interesting -

1) Self Incriminate - by providing the password that is known to Mr.  
Boucher which in turn would turn testimonial of his knowledge and  
control over the said laptop and its contents
2) Perjury - by lying on oath that he does not knows the password that  
can be proved otherwise by the ICE Agent for he found the laptop sans  
the encryption
3) Contempt of Court - by rejecting both the options mentioned above

Regards,
Shailesh

On Mar 3, 2009, at 1:00 PM, tvlillard () msn com wrote:

> Reference below is an interesting article concerning a Judge's order  
> to decrypt of a harddrive.
>
>
> Judge orders defendant to decrypt PGP-protected laptop - CNET News
>
> URL: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10172866-38.html
>
>
> Federal court orders defendant accused of having illegal data on his  
> laptop to type in his PGP passphrase so prosecutors can access  
> decrypted files.
>
>
> Thanks
> Terrence