Letwin wants increased penalties for refusal to decrypt

[Nicholas Bohm]

At 15:10 20/08/2002 +0100, Owen Lewis wrote:


> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ukcrypto-admin@chiark.greenend.org.uk
> > [mailto:ukcrypto-admin@chiark.greenend.org.uk]On Behalf Of David Hopwood
> > Sent: 19 August 2002 23:59
> > To: ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk
> > Subject: Re: Letwin wants increased penalties for refusal to decrypt
> >
> > > Once authorisation to search is given, then a deliberate thwarting of
> > > effective and complete search is not to be countenanced.
> >
> > You're assuming that "deliberate thwarting" is distinguishable from
> > forgetting a password. It isn't.
>
>It does not have to be. All it requires is that the law says that you must
>you safeguard your keys and that you commit an offence if you do not produce
>them when required.

RIP does not do this.

>There is then an onus on you to show that the failure to
>produce is blameless. E.g. Your house was struck by lightning whilst you
>were abroad and it and all its contents were reduced to ashes.

There is no such onus in RIP:  you must produce sufficient evidence that 
the key wasn't available to raise the issue (this may be no more than your 
oral testimony of forgetting), and the prosecution must then prove beyond 
reasonable doubt that it was available..


>It will not be enough IMO to say airily, "Oh, I never write these thing
>down - dreadfully insecure - and my mind's gone completely blank :-)". The
>law can presume that you will make safe arrangements for your keys (or even
>require that you do) - and which you should to anyway for your own sake.

This simply isn't what RIP does:  the issue was fought hard and 
successfully to leave things where they are.

Regards

Nicholas

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