(June 26, 2016 at 10:59 am)Aoi Magi Wrote:(June 26, 2016 at 10:50 am)Jehanne Wrote: As someone who has worked in IT for 25 years, I suspect that the federal government could crack the guy's password if they wanted to; however, they would probably need to involve the NSA, and we're talking about, perhaps, tens of thousands of hours of supercomputer time, and it is simply cheaper for the US government to keep the guy in jail then it is to devote a large segment of NSA resources to cracking the guy's password. But, then again, if it is a spoof container, then it would take more energy than has existed in the entire Universe, both visible and beyond our cosmic horizon, to crack the passphrase using brute-force methods.
So in other words, it is pointless to hold him, and is a waste of time and resources... and a drain on our tax money...
I wonder why the feds couldn't just monitor him and gather some evidence before moving in...
I think that the real motive is just totalitarianism. Basically, "fuck with the US government and this is what is going to happen to you!" Civil rights are "rights" when it is convenient for the US government to grant those rights. If you're a young, good-looking upper-class white girl whose just shoplifted from Target, the cops can show-up and give all sorts of reasons to not do their jobs, basing their arguments entirely on your "civil rights". On the other hand, if you're a poor, unemployed black woman, then they're going to walk you out in handcuffs in front of everyone.
I witnessed this, by the way, at a local Halmark store, where some thieves stole some items so quickly that I did not even see it happen and left the store just as quickly. The cop who showed-up minutes later, a police sergeant, gave the store owner a mini-public lecture on people's civil rights.
