How would this go down in the UK?

[izoneiz]

I read this article on Reddit (I hope it's within OCUK rules for me to post this).

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/shirt/afib1/truecrypt_and_the_fifth_amendment_saved_my_life/

In short, a guy had some data on a truecrypt hard-drive, and courts couldn't get to it, and he never revealed the password.

What would happen, in an identical situation in the UK? Let's say the story was identical, word for word, but that the legal battle took place in the UK, under UK law.

Any takers?

 

[JBuk]

Obstructing justice?

 

[Burnsy2023]

He'd be prosecuted under Section 49 of Part III of RIPA. He could then be jailed for up to 5 years in the case of terrorism or national security or 2 years for everything else.

 

[Moredhel]

Part 3, Section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act says you can be imprisoned for up to 2 years for refusing to hand over encryption keys.

This goes up to 5 years for terrorism related cases.

Damn, beaten.

 

[4p]

Some high quality porn he obviously didn't want to share

 

[Saytan]

so he got off for downloading child porn.

10000 internets to him!

 

[KNiVES]

Some high quality porn he obviously didn't want to share

He admitted in the article almost straight away he actually had around 30 images of child pornography, and whined like a bitch when he didn't want to pay the consequences of supporting such a horrific activity.

British law comes out tops on this, but not by much. The legislation provided by previous posters only suggest 2 years at worst, 5 years at best.

 

[dalin80]

So two years in jail for obstructing justice or 5 years and a life on the sex offenders register for having any of the type of porn MP's have bandwagoned against that week.


hmm...

 

[Amleto]

if he was wasked to give the password, and didnt, I imagine he would end up in jail for contempt of court.

 

[ElliorR]

Am I reading this right? He admits to downloading child porn and then gets away with it?

 

[xJcBx]

I don't know wether this is a good thing or a bad thing.. Encryption is suposed to be for hiding things from bad people, not for the bad people to hide things :l

Although it shows how much of a good program it is and how I think i'm going to invest in it for my external HDD now.

 

[Moredhel]

if he was wasked to give the password, and didnt, I imagine he would end up in jail for contempt of court.

The scary thing about the RIPA is that it doesn't have to actually go to court, they can demand them during their investigation then charge you if you refuse then. As that would be what you are being charged with, refusing then isn't counted as contempt. At least this is my understanding, IANAL etc.

 

[Burnsy2023]

if he was wasked to give the password, and didnt, I imagine he would end up in jail for contempt of court.

It's not up to the court to gather evidence though. Contempt of court would never happen.

I don't agree with the UK law on revealing encryption passwords, but unfortunately this is one of the sad consequences of liberty.

 

[Amleto]

It's not up to the court to gather evidence though. Contempt of court would never happen.

I don't agree with the UK law on revealing encryption passwords, but unfortunately this is one of the sad consequences of liberty.

yeah, I just read the article properly and agree with you now.

 

[SlyReaper]

From the article, it sounded like he didn't deliberately download child porn, just downloaded a file which, unknown to him, contained child porn. Obviously, you want to take that with a pinch of salt considering the source, but that can happen.

TrueCrypt has a useful feature which you can use in case you are forced to reveal your password. You can create a hidden partition inside the main encrypted partition. Basically, you enter your main password to decrypt the main volume (which can contain all your normal porn), and if you use your super-top-secret password, it opens a smaller encrypted partition (which contains the stuff you really really really don't want anyone to see). And because of the way TrueCrypt deals with volume headers and whatnot, there's no way to prove there's a hidden partition in there. It just looks like random bits, which you would expect.

 

[d_brennen]

He seems like a very nice man lol. Probably deserves 5 years inside

 

[Clairvoyant]

Jail time and a kicking from the inmate for child porn.

 

[Dave M]

Should be like drink driving - refuse to blow and the punishment is the same as if you were over the limit.

 

[This Side Up]

Sounds like a nonce who "accidentally" downloaded child porn.

 

[mmj_uk]

Can they not prosecute now that they have an admission? they can trace his username etc?

It sounds more like viral advertising for TrueCrypt tbh.