14 DAY TRIAL // Back in December 2006, Sebastien Boucher was arrested by the Canadian border patrols after he had attempted to get into Vermont with a laptop containing child porn. Sure, the authorities didn't know, but when they first investigated the laptop, they found several files with names closely related to child pornography. Boucher's explanation? He said he downloaded files every once in a while, but he deleted them once he noticed they were actually child porn. Yeah, pretty smart. Somehow... because this couldn't get him out of the jail.
So, the authorities had the laptop, but they needed more information in order to incriminate the suspect. But, when they first attempted to access the hard drives, they found that drive Z was protected by "encryption algorithms from Pretty Good Software", PC Magazine reported today. Their next step? Boucher was sent to the judge in order to reveal the password of the computer. On November 29th, Magistrate Judge Jerome Niedermeier ruled that Boucher could not be forced to disclose the password because this would be used to incriminate him. Moreover, accessing his files would be something like exploring his mind, the judge said according to the source mentioned above.
"The procedure is equivalent to asking Boucher, 'Do you know the password to the laptop?' If Boucher does know the password, he would be faced with the forbidden trilemma: incriminate himself, lie under oath or find himself in contempt of court. Boucher would still be implicitly indicating that he knows the password and that he has access to the files. The contents of Boucher's mind would still be displayed, and therefore the testimonial nature does not change merely because no one else will discover the password", the judge said according to PC Magazine.
Certainly, forcing the child porn suspect to reveal his password wouldn't be too fair and might infringe some of his rights, but there are many people out there who believe that pedophiles should receive the maximum sentence and urge the authorities to do everything that is possible to find them.