5 ms·

It's called the Fifth Amendment. "nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself"

• maratd 15y ago
  The password that you are requested to provide to the court is not incriminating. There is no law against having passwords or using passwords. The Fifth Amendment doesn't apply. The incriminating part is the data on the drive ... and you are not being requested to testify ... it's there and has already been confiscated by the police using a legal warrant. This situation stinks, for sure. If you want to protect yourself, use shadow volumes. Far better solution than questionable legal arguments.
  • wisty 15y ago
    "Questionable" is the key point here. We can't be sure if the defence holds water until it has been thoroughly tested in court. As for shadow volumes, that's a whole other kettle of fish. I'm sure it won't be quite that simple - if your VLC history has a link to /shadow-volume/pirate_movie.avi then they may be able to compel you to decrypt it.
    • maratd 15y ago
      That's not what it would look like. VLC would have a link to D:\pirate_movie.avi but when you decrypt the volume, all it shows is a bunch of text files on D:\ ... because the password provided is a trigger for the software to show a bunch of text files, not your pirated movie collection. Granted, if we were working for the prosecutor we would be able to put 2 and 2 together ... but ... these are the same morons who just a few days ago grabbed an entire rack instead of one server, not being able to tell the difference. You're giving them too much credit. Anyway, as of right now, cops/prosecutor only get real excited if there's naked children involved ... and frankly, you shouldn't be doing that sort of shit anyway. Just jerk off to normal porn like everybody else, problem solved.
      • AretNCarlsen 15y ago
        And if they do put 2 and 2 together, now you have perjured yourself, not just refused to testify. Much worse. > Just jerk off to normal porn like everybody else, problem solved. sigh First they came for those accused of pedophilia, and I said nothing because I wasn't accused of pedophilia.
        • westicle 15y ago
          Ironic invocation of Godwin's Law?
          • vukk 15y ago
            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...
      • sorbus 15y ago
        > these are the same morons who just a few days ago grabbed an entire rack instead of one server, not being able to tell the difference. The FBI agents who did that are very much not prosecutors (and we still don't know why the FBI did that; it may have been intentional).
        • seanp2k 15y ago
          THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW http://www.dedleg.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/mr_owl_skateboard.jpg http://www.dedleg.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/m...
  • ahi 15y ago
    Providing the password is an admission of knowing the password.