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In reply to the discussion: Ruling could force Americans to decrypt laptops [View all]caseymoz
(5,763 posts)It's not like you keep something tangible in a computer. What you have their are ideas that have to be communicated to people or other computers to have any direct effect on the tangible, macroscopic, material world. Even if it were documents in the safe, those are tangible. Those would be similar to the actual computer you have something on. If the papers were encrypted, what would be on those sheets are random letters and numbers. The computer is like the piece of paper, not like the safe.
You could then put your computer in a safe, and they can require you to open the safe. Decrypting your computer, though, would be like telling them what you said, or what you thought that day. In fact, if they're going to demand your password, why don't you just save the trouble and tell them what's in there? See how this would be like violating the 5th?
No, this is a free speech issue, the Bush appointed judge is smoking crack. What a surprise from the president who saddled us with Clarence Thomas.