Mike, I don't have the time to respond to all the points of your email except the first/
Federal Contempt of Court http://www.bafirm.com/articles/federalcontempt.html "Although there is no statutory maximum limit regulating the amount of time a contemnor can be ordered to spend in confinement (United States v. Carpenter, 91 F.3d 1282, 1283 (9th Cir. 1996)), the requirement that a jury trial be granted in criminal contempt cases involving sentences over six months in jail acts as a check on this power." 67-79 --- Mike Perry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thus spake Eric H. Jung ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): > > > > Tony's point was that you could arrange not to have the > > authentication > > > tokens anymore. You better hope they believe you when you say you > > > don't have it, though. > > > > >Not having the authentication tokens counts as refusing to > surrender > > >them. > > > > Per US law, if a judge subpoenas you to hand them over and you > refuse > > and/or remain silent, it means indefinite jail time (until you hand > > over the tokens) and/or fines. > > Where is your source on this? As I understand it, there are a few > fundamental principles of the US legal system that should render this > statement completely false. One is Habeas Corpus.. You can't just > throw someone in jail indefinitely without a criminal charge and a > trial. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writ_of_habeas_corpus > > Though it seems Bush&Co are violating it with "enemy combatant" > charges, I do not think they have the political power (at least > anymore) to name an anonymity provider as an "enemy combatant" > (especially if they are a natural born US citizen). The same applies > to the 72 hour warrant deal, at least as far as I can tell from > http://www.fff.org/comment/com0601c.asp > > Second, if it is a criminal charge, you are not under any obligation > to testify against yourself in a criminal court of law (5th > ammendment). There are various exceptions to this, main one being if > you are not the person charged of the crime (though I think you can > still claim that such testimony may incriminate you for unrelated > matters). I suppose it could also be argued that the passphrase does > not count as testimony, but it sure seems like it is. > > Finally, some googling on subpoena compliance seems to indicate that > punishment for subpoena non-compliance is 'contempt of court' charge > and fines. > > http://www.rcfp.org/cgi-local/privilege/item.cgi?i=questions > > That page advises you not to answer any subpoenas without challenging > them first, among other things (ie one state's court cannot usually > subpoena someone from another state). Contempt of court charges for > non-compliance may be repeated, but any contempt law I can find on > the web has some form of maximum limit. The longest I've seen so far > is North Carolina, which is a max of 1yr in 90 day increments: > http://www.rosen.com/ppf/cat/statco/laws.asp > > > Also, dunno how accurate it is, but Wikipedia seems to claim that the > key disclosure provisions of the RIPA (Part III) are not yet in force > in the UK: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_Investigatory_Powers_Act_2000 > > > > > We seriously have to watch our paranoia on this one. This is one of > those situations that if we believe we have no rights, it will be > very > easy to knock us over, simply by playing off our fears and demanding > keys without any legitimate basis to do so. > > If any Tor operator is arrested/detained in the US, they would do > well > to refuse to surrender any passphrase until they are actually in > court > and ordered to do so by a Judge (and then only after voicing protest, > to allow for clear appeal to a higher court). Cops will probably just > lie to you and try to convince you that you are required on the spot. > Ask for a lawyer immediately. > > This is not just to protect the Tor network either. With computer > laws > as crazy as they are, and with the IPPA coming down the road, soon > simply having something like an Open Source DVD player or archiver on > your machine will be enough to land you in jail for a while, if it's > not already... > > -- > Mike Perry > Mad Computer Scientist > fscked.org evil labs >
