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'Sorry, I've Forgotten My Decryption Password' is Contempt Of Court, Pal - US Appeal Judges (theregister.co.uk)
Thomas Claburn, reporting for The Register: The US Third Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld a lower court ruling of contempt against a chap who claimed he couldn't remember the password to decrypt his computer's hard drives. In so doing, the appeals court opted not to address a lower court's rejection of the defendant's argument that being forced to reveal his password violated his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. In the case under review, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held the defendant (referred to in court documents as "John Doe" because his case is partially under seal) in contempt of court for willfully disobeying and resisting an order to decrypt external hard drives that had been attached to his Mac Pro computer. The defendant's computer, two external hard drives, an iPhone 5S, and an iPhone 6 Plus had been seized as part of a child pornography investigation.
Presumably by the time the courts are ordering decryption, the computer has gone through forensics by actual computer forensics people.
Your possibility might apply to the cop who's beating down your door and just trying to get a quick takedown but if you refuse that initial step it will go to people who know what they're doing long before it goes to a judge.
Ruling that it's a "foregone conclusion" is exactly what happened here, but for different reasons.
While the defendant hadn't provided the Mac Pro and hard drive passwords previously, the investigators managed to figure out the password to his Mac Pro and were able to use that access to determine that it had been used to visit child porn sites and download thousands of files that matched the hashes for recognized child porn files. Those files weren't found on the Mac Pro, but the defendant's sister testified "that Doe had shown her hundreds of images of child pornography on the encrypted external hard drives". Between the download history, hash matches, and testimony about the location of the files, the judge ruled that it's a foregone conclusion that the drives contain child porn and that turning over the password is not testimonial in nature as a result.
I'm not sure that I necessarily agree with that assessment (it could be that providing the passwords is still testimonial in nature with regards to crimes they don't know about that his knowledge of the passwords would implicate him of), and the article points out that it's likely this case will go all the way to the Supreme Court.
No, you cannot "set your encryption" to do that. Your shit will be imaged.
We don't need to mod you down. Just present facts. Not that I am a Trump supporter, but I can tell from how you write that you are unhinged due to rampant bias. It is affecting your mind. Specifically, but not limited to, your ability to process data, form correct opinions, and see facts as they are.
Case in point:
District Judge: Honorable L. Felipe Restrepo
He is an Obama appointee who made the original ruling and whose ruling the third circuit court of appeals upheld.
Please tell me how an Obama appointee is part of a vast right wing republican conspiracy to attack Americans.
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
It's the law, innocent until proven guilty. So the judge failed to prove the person did remember the password, hence the judge is in contempt of justice. In order to prosecute for failure to remember and state a password, the court must prove the defendant does remember it, otherwise they a just fucking guessing because that is what they want, a really horrific corruption of the justice system.
Think of the ramifications, the court claims you saw something with no evidence of proof of that claim, you say you did not and they imprison you until you say what they want you to say. You can not legally force memory, to force people to remember and just to be clear, how many you idiots got 100% on every exam you ever took, well, according to shit for brains judge, you put down the incorrect answer on purpose. Courts are not for fucking guessing, want to make a fucking claim, then fucking prove it.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen