This is years old, but I'm not sure that many people have heard about it. This is for the UK, but with the way things have been going in the USA, we might end up with something like this eventually.
http://www.digg.com/tech_news/UK_can_now_d...ty_of_jail_time
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071...-jail-time.html
Why is this so terrible? There are tons of reasons. For one, how can they prove that a file is encrypted? It could just be some junk file. Also, what if someone truly forgets his password? He get thrown in jail for two to five years because he just couldn't remember something!
There's yet another problem with this. It would be way too easy to frame a person with something like this! Someone's "enemy" puts encrypted files on his computer, so he obviously doesn't know the decryption key. There's no way for him to prove that the files don't belong to him and he seriously doesn't know the decryption key. What does it get him? A few years in prison.
I'm sure there are many other problems with this too. If anyone thinks of any, then post them here.
http://www.digg.com/tech_news/UK_can_now_d...ty_of_jail_time
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071...-jail-time.html
Why is this so terrible? There are tons of reasons. For one, how can they prove that a file is encrypted? It could just be some junk file. Also, what if someone truly forgets his password? He get thrown in jail for two to five years because he just couldn't remember something!
There's yet another problem with this. It would be way too easy to frame a person with something like this! Someone's "enemy" puts encrypted files on his computer, so he obviously doesn't know the decryption key. There's no way for him to prove that the files don't belong to him and he seriously doesn't know the decryption key. What does it get him? A few years in prison.
I'm sure there are many other problems with this too. If anyone thinks of any, then post them here.