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N. Carolina Senator Drafting Bill To Criminalize Apple's Refusal To Aid Decryption (arstechnica.com)

Posted by timothy on from the authority-trumps-consent dept.

Ars Technica reports that North Carolina senator Richard Burr says he plans to introduce legislation "to criminalize a company's refusal to aid decryption efforts as part of a governmental investigation." In a USA Today op-ed, Burr, griping that "[t]he newest Apple operating systems allow device access only to users," even Apple itself can't get in," drags out the usual bugaboos: "Murderers, pedophiles, drug dealers and the others are already using this technology to cover their tracks."

Updated Friday 12:40pm EST: The Wall Street Journal reports Senate Panel Chief Decides Against Plan to Criminalize Firms That Don't Decipher Encrypted Messages

7 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Except he already decided NOT to submit the bill by Trailrunner7 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ars might want to update its rewrite of the WSJ story. Burr isn't submitting the bill. http://www.wsj.com/articles/se...

  2. Richard Burr - re-read the Constitution fucktard. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple is protecting itself from charge of Treason, something you yourself are guilty of.

    The Constitution protects EVERYONE, not just "good people", but EVERYONE from unreasonable search and seizure.
    It also allows EVERYONE to refuse to answer on the grounds that they might incriminate themselves.

    When Apple configured it's devices so that they could not decrypt the phones themselves, they were ENFORCING those rights that you would so gladly trample all over.

    I cannot wait until you, your traitorous cronies and the rest of the Congressional, Executive and Judicial branches are held accountable for their Treason and Traitorous activities since 9/11. We can fix the deficit by selling tickets to your executions (the punishment for Treason during a time of war).

  3. Re:Dear Owners by oneiros27 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's 13 years old, but I still recommend as an introduction "The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)" : http://www.joelonsoftware.com/...

    --
    Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
  4. American, home of the not so free..or brave by evolutionary · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not like we really honored the US Constitution since the so-called "patriot act" after 911. Benjamin Franklin said it best: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." When will we learn?

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  5. Re:Except he already decided NOT to submit the bil by StatureOfLiberty · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think the quote went something like this:

    "I do, I offer a complete and utter retraction. The proposed legislation was totally without basis in fact, and was in no way competent, and was motivated purely by ignorance, and I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you, or your family, and any other citizen and I hereby undertake not to submit any such nonsense at any time in the future."

  6. Prosecuted and pled guilty by XXongo · · Score: 5, Informative

    But when someone intercepted, recorded and released an embarrassing conversation made by Newt Gringrich in Gainesville, FL after this law was passed, no one was prosecuted.

    The people who taped the conversation were, in fact, prosecuted, and pled guilty to illegal wiretapping. see: http://www.nytimes.com/1997/04...

    WASHINGTON, April 23— The Justice Department today filed charges against a Florida couple who said they had intercepted and recorded a conference call last December among Speaker Newt Gingrich and other Republican leaders.

    The Federal authorities in Jacksonville, Fla., announced this afternoon that the couple, John and Alice Martin, had been charged with an infraction, violating the Communications Privacy Act by using a radio scanner to intercept the radio portion of the conversation. It is the mildest criminal charge the couple could face in the case and carries a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine. The Government said the Martins had agreed to plead guilty to the charges, and said the couple would cooperate with a continuing investigation into how a recording of the conversation wound up in the hands of a New York Times reporter.

    Or, for more details: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jba...

  7. Show Government Ineptitude by charles05663 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, here is the story:

    The California government purchases an iPhone (hey it is designed in California!) for the terrorist they hired (notice how most news organizations and the president like to call him a mass shooter to further their agenda of gun control instead of a terrorist that they were?).

    Being soooooo tech savvy, their IT department did not install away that allowed them (the gov) to access the phone that they owned and issued. It really seems that this whole encryption debate is design to mask the fact the the government is inept.

    How may companies would issue a device they could not control?