(Re: DTI Policy Response)

[Peter Sommer]

>Police & Criminal Evidence Act (or something related): you are
>obliged to produce evidence from a computer in legible form (there
>is/was a running battle on uk.legal about whether this includes
>pictures). To my mind, this might well also cover decrypting the
>information (since encrypted information is not legible), but
>IANAL.

Yes - s 19.4 PACE 1984 - the section looks as though it was directed
towards an unusual storage format or image format but for some time I have
thought that this section could be judicially interpreted to include
encrypted data.  If we are going to have compellable access to encryption
keys I'd want any new law to be explicitly discussed,  not the result of
"convenient" interpretation:

*	what would be the penalty for non-compliance - the adverse
inference from silence as from s 34 CJPOA, 1994 plus the associated Code
of Practice;  or the infamous compulsion "Section Two" powers of the SFO ?

*	to what level of judicial figure will a law enforcement officer
need to apply for a warrant - and will a senior officer be required to
authorise the application of a more junior officer?

*	will there be detailed Codes of Practice to guide the police,
prosecutors, judiciary etc (in any event we could do with a new PACE Code
dealing simply with the handling of computer evidence - procedures for
freezing,  defence access etc etc)




|---->   Peter Sommer   ------------------------------------------->|
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