Comment Re:Encryption use != evil (Score 2, Informative) 675
This ruling would have been unlikely for any case except child pornography. Child pornography is so inflamatory that bad case law seems to be the rule rather than the exception.
I have worked for both the prosecution and the criminal defense sides of child pornography cases. I have watched the jury members when they are forced to view the vile images of babies being raped. They want someone to go to jail for making them view the pitures. Judges are frequently not that much different than jury member and they are also repulsed by the images. The impartial stand on rulings must be very difficult when they too are repulsed by the photos.
In addition to this case I know of a court case that essentially ruled, If you receive an illegal file and delete the file, you had control of the file because you deleted it, therefore you possessed the file.
Have you ever had your browser hijacked?
Did you delete the files your received while hijacked?
Turn yourself in.
With child pornography and computers there must be a friend of the court to give a professional unbiased opinion about computer evidence. In our adversarial system frequently the side with the best lawyer wins. I have found this to be very true with electronic evidence because technology changes so fast the courts can't keep up. If a win at all costs lawyer finds a qualified expert the case law will continue to be bad and restrict the honest citizen.
I have worked for both the prosecution and the criminal defense sides of child pornography cases. I have watched the jury members when they are forced to view the vile images of babies being raped. They want someone to go to jail for making them view the pitures. Judges are frequently not that much different than jury member and they are also repulsed by the images. The impartial stand on rulings must be very difficult when they too are repulsed by the photos.
In addition to this case I know of a court case that essentially ruled, If you receive an illegal file and delete the file, you had control of the file because you deleted it, therefore you possessed the file.
Have you ever had your browser hijacked?
Did you delete the files your received while hijacked?
Turn yourself in.
With child pornography and computers there must be a friend of the court to give a professional unbiased opinion about computer evidence. In our adversarial system frequently the side with the best lawyer wins. I have found this to be very true with electronic evidence because technology changes so fast the courts can't keep up. If a win at all costs lawyer finds a qualified expert the case law will continue to be bad and restrict the honest citizen.
