'Person' as in Section 13

[Nicholas Bohm]

At 09:38 AM 8/9/1999 +0100, David Swarbrick wrote:
>In message <3.0.5.32.19990807123002.009ad480@mail.netkonect.co.uk>,
>Nicholas Bohm <nbohm@ernest.net> writes
>
>>
>>There have certainly been cases where the prosecution could prove no more
>>than that one out of two defendants committed the offence, without being
>>able to prove which, and without being able to prove any conspiracy.  The
>>result is that both are acquitted.  The same certainly seems to apply in
>>your example.
>>
>>A combination of key splitting, steganography and communications using
>>transient keys will clearly defeat this proposed legislation.  If
>>deployment of those techniques is in fact good for security generally, and
>>will be promoted by the threat of the legislation, perhaps we should
>>welcome it after all.
>
>Surely not? The notice does not need to suggest that the person served
>need be able to provide all the answer. The definition of key includes
>'any part of a key'  If you retain any part of what may be required to
>decrypt the text, it must be surrendered.

Yes.  But if five people each surrender what each of them says is all he
has, each claiming that he and the other four together have the necessary
components, but the result fails, then it is impossible to prove which of
them has withheld something.  So it all depends where the burden of proof
falls.

>The legislation will be 'defeated,' if passed, only by the avoidance of
>use of cryptography. It will always now be possible to communicate
>securely, but any users of such security must know that, as against
>their government, and irrespective of their propriety, they will have
>privacy only at the cost of risking becoming criminals.

I think not.  Communications using transient keys are effectively immune to
key seizure requirements.  Steganographic file systems make it impossible
to prove the existence of encrypted material to which to apply the
decryption powers.

Regards,

Nicholas Bohm

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