Guy locked-up forever for forgetting his password.

[Jehanne]

[Aoi Magi]

Are feds really not able to crack a harddisk password on their own? Apple needs to buy whatever encryption tech that guy used...

[SteelCurtain]

They should be able to charge him with all the ancillary shit, the log files contain enough for probable cause.

But that's it. If they can't prove that there's child porn on his computer, they can't convict him.

[Jehanne]

Are feds really not able to crack a harddisk password on their own? Apple needs to buy whatever encryption tech that guy used...

He was using a MacIntosh and Apples' "vault" file encryption.

[Jehanne]

They should be able to charge him with all the ancillary shit, the log files contain enough for probable cause.

But that's it. If they can't prove that there's child porn on his computer, they can't convict him.

I guess be careful with what terms that you enter into a search engine (especially, Google) or use Startpage, Duck Duck Go Go, etc.  On the other hand, if some teenage friend of one of your kids shows-up at your house and starts doing Internet searches on terrorist organizations, is that probable cause for saying that you are a terrorist?

[Minimalist]

US Attorneys hate to lose a case.  It looks bad on their resumes when they try to move on to high-paying law firms.

[SteelCurtain]

Nope, but it's probable cause for investigating me.

And if someone reports me because they've seen child porn on my computer, then if you legally seize my computer and find child porn search terms and indexing files on there but not the files, then yes, that is considered enough to hold someone from being in public, where they could, you know, harm a child.

But not for possession. For things like obstruction of justice and maybe contempt of court.

[Aoi Magi]

freenet, vm, and search log with specific terms, separately might not be much, but together looks pretty damn suspicious. But if he claims to forgotten the password, can't the feds just break the damn password? They are good at breaking apple protection after all...

[Jehanne]

Nope, but it's probable cause for investigating me.

And if someone reports me because they've seen child porn on my computer, then if you legally seize my computer and find child porn search terms and indexing files on there but not the files, then yes, that is considered enough to hold someone from being in public, where they could, you know, harm a child.

But not for possession. For things like obstruction of justice and maybe contempt of court.

In US law, there is, of course, the presumption of innocence, but again, let's say that the guy is telling the truth, that is, he can't remember his password.  Then what?  Does he stay in jail "forever" over that fact?  As far as being a threat to children, the guy is not accused of any child abuse, and even for child sexual offenders, their sentences are typically not life-without-parole sentences.

[Tiberius]

Can't this guy plead the 5th?