Strong encryption

[Aart Koelewijn]

On Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:32:18 +0100, Joep L. Blom wrote:

> On 25/01/11 11:11, Colin Law wrote:
>> On 25 January 2011 04:26, Basil Chupin<blchupin at iinet.net.au>  wrote:
>>> On 25/01/2011 10:08, Robert Holtzman wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 04:11:51PM -0700, Doug Robinson wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Does anybody have a feel for the problems associated with
>>>>> distributing software that employs Strong Encryption.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have looked around and there is a number of good things out there
>>>>> but I wonder if the US Feds are still throwing hissie fits every
>>>>> time this stuff appears in public?
>>>>
>>>> They probably are but since Phil Zimmermann, the creator of PGP, beat
>>>> them in court I don't think you have too much to worry about. Someone
>>>> correct me if I'm wrong.
>>>>
>>>> Note: I am *not* a lawyer and the above is *not* legal advice.
>>>
>>> There was an article recently about a person who was placed in jail
>>> for contempt of court because he refused to provide the "authorities"
>>> his encryption key to the data on his computer. I cannot remember in
>>> which country this occurred whether it was USA, or Australia, or
>>> Britain :-( . (I *think* that the article was on BBC Online but I am
>>> not sure.)
>>
>> I think it was in the UK, a guy was charged with child pornography and
>> would not provide the key for an encrypted disk, no prizes for guessing
>> why.  I believe he was found guilty anyway.
>>
>> Colin
>>
> Colin,
> It was in the Netherlands and the apprehended guy was a paedophile who
> worked in a "Kindergarten" and had misused > 80 children from 1 year to
> 10. He was part of a large paedophile network and had thousands of
> really awful paedophylic pictures on his computer but he had it really
> well encrypted. However, the police has "persuaded" him to give his
> encryption code.
> This kind of guys is be removed permanently from society. Joep

Joep, there has been no trial yet, so he is suspected of and not yet 
found guilty. The case seems rather strong though. And as no one may be 
forced to give evidence against himself he may well have the right not to 
give those keys according to dutch law. But like you, I would not like it 
if someone like him would be able to get near my grandchildren.

Aart