'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.

Comments

Re:That's not good law

[MrDoh!]

That was how the UK version of this law was made to look silly (even though it later passed of course).

An admission of a crime was made, written up, encrypted, and put on a USB(CD maybe) and sent to the Home Secretary. The police were then contacted and informed that the Home Secretary has, in his possession, an admission of a crime that requires a custodial sentence.
Technically, that he never had the keys to unlock it was irrelevant. He had an item that was an admission of a crime, he was duty bound to hand it over and unlock it, even though there's no way on earth he could. But the way the law was written, he was the one in trouble.

If this is allowed to stand, we now have the way for someone/anyone to send you an encrypted file (email/cookies), that will then get you found in contempt of court as you are unable to prove you can't unlock it.