On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 12:03 PM, M.R. <makro...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 28/04/11 13:40, Johan Wevers wrote: >> >> I'm not so sure. Especially for human rights activists in, say, Syrie or >> Tibet, might not want the government to know when they are mailing with >> foreign journalists. > > Quite probably, but I do not consider myself qualified to comment > on trials and tribulations of human rights activists in faraway lands, > or, for that matter, on this continent. My concern is the result of > a much more mundane set of circumstances. > > When legal "pressure to decrypt" is discussed, almost universally > the issue becomes that of the right not to self-incriminate. > Implicitly, it is assumed that the proceedings are part of some > segment of the criminal law. However, it is not in the criminal > but in the civil litigation that the courts can (and nowadays > increasingly do) issue Subpoena Duces Tecum ("production of evidence") > for plain-text of one of the litigant's communications. No right not > to self-incriminate applies in such case. Where the record exists > (just for an-instance) in a monetary hefty divorce litigation that > there was encrypted communication with a third party, reasonably > suspected of interfering in the marriage, the request from the > opposing side for such duces tecum would not be hard to obtain. > But there has to be a "reasonable expectation of relevance"; i.e., encrypted > communication with a specific and relevant individual. > Without it, request would likely be treated as nothing but a fishing > expedition and rejected. I can easily imagine similar cases where > the other communicating party is not Alice (36-29-38) but Bob, your > accountant or stockbroker. >
"A federal judge has ordered a criminal defendant to decrypt his hard drive by typing in his PGP passphrase so prosecutors can view the unencrypted files, a ruling that raises serious concerns about self-incrimination in an electronic age." 'Judge orders defendant to decrypt PGP-protected laptop', http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10172866-38.html. _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users