French Bill Carries 5-Year Jail Sentence For Company Refusals To Decrypt Data For Police (dailydot.com)

Patrick O'Neill writes: Employees of companies in France that refuse to decrypt data for police can go to prison for five years under new legislation from conservative legislators, Agence France-Presse reports. The punishment for refusing to hand over access to encrypted data is a five year jail sentence and $380,000 fine. Telecom companies would face their own penalties, including up to two years in jail. M. Pierre Lellouche, a French Republican, singled out American encryption in particular. "They deliberately use the argument of public freedoms to make money knowing full well that the encryption used to drug traffickers, to serious [criminals] and especially to terrorists. It is unacceptable that the state loses any control over encryption and, in fact, be the subject of manipulation by U.S. multinationals."

Comments

So just hand them encrypted data

[ArmoredDragon]

If they want access to encrypted data, just give it to them. If they need it decrypted, that's their problem.

How do you put a corporation in jail?

[BitterOak]

Who exactly goes to jail? The CEO? The CTO? The employees who supposedly know how to decrypt the data? How do you establish who has that ability? Suppose no one has that ability. Suppose the devices are designed so only the end user can decrypt the data. Do you jail the engineers who designed such devices? Do you jail the retailers who sold such devices? How does this work? How does the government prove a specific employee at a company has the ability to decrypt the data, or in the alternative, how do they prove which individual was responsible for creating a situation where the data can't be decrypted?

Re:How do you put a corporation in jail?

[Tablizer]

Who exactly goes to jail? The CEO? The CTO? The employees who supposedly know how to decrypt the data?

Jail em all and let God sort it out

Re:How do you put a corporation in jail?

[93 Escort Wagon]

March 3, 2015 (Reuters) - The French Assemblée Nationale today issued instructions to Juge D'Instruction Claude d'Monet, ordering that he determine the being or beings responsible for the existence of the mathematics of encryption.

d'Monet subsequently issued a Warrant and Order to Appear to God, declaring that failure to appear by the 15th of March would result in a summary declaration of contempt, an order for His arrest, and possible forfeiture of the universe.

Police have attempted to serve this warrant at the Notre-Dame de Paris several times, but without success.

Close Up Shop

[headkase]

I would hope that corporations faced with these unreasonable demands simply close up shop in the country. Google CEO going to go to jail? Well, Google pulls out of France and has no presence. Good luck French people with your search queries. If a corporation caves to one country then it will just embolden then next country. Better to draw a line in the sand and tell them to fuck off.

It's not just encryption

[penguinoid]

They deliberately use the argument of public freedoms to make money knowing full well that the encryption used to drug traffickers, to serious [criminals] and especially to terrorists.

The same argument applies to cars, guns, knives, shoes... all used by drug traffickers, criminals, and terrorists. Knife companies should be required to install a failsafe so that the blades can be remotely deactivated at the government's request.

Proposal

[manu0601]

This is not a signed law, this is a proposal, from opposition. And even if it passes, it also need to pass in the senate.