[ale] Fwd: Jim - cannot post this message to ALE, please post for me

[Lightner, Jeff]

IANAL but my read of the judges decision in the case I previously referenced was that he decided the user must unlock the encrypted section only because he had previously logged in for the customs folks.   The judge ruled that implied permission and somehow that meant that the user couldn't then partially deny permission.   Based on this it seems to me if the entire drive is encrypted and you refuse to boot it up yourself and don't login to it for them they can't use that same reasoning against you.   The downside to such a stance in my view is that it seems more likely they'd just seize your device based on the refusal.

There has been much case law that shows refusal to cooperate with authorities cannot itself be used as the basis for a warrant but since 9/11 the Federal Government has gotten away with one hell of a lot of things that would not ordinarily have been acceptable.   Even if they later are judged to have violated your rights chances are you'd already have lost your device for months while it was being decided.   Some actions are simply to harass you and others into meek compliance.

It's much like having a police officer ask if he can search your car during a routine traffic stop.   Unless you're doing something illegal you're apt to comply simply because you fear he'll get suspicious if you don't.   I've even seen video of one guy that got busted for a large drug find during such a voluntary search and when the cop asked why he agreed to the search that was exactly the reason the perp gave.





-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Ron Frazier (ALE)
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 11:09 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] Fwd: Jim - cannot post this message to ALE, please post for me



H P Ladds <householdwords at gmail.com> wrote:

>On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 10:06 AM, H P Ladds <householdwords at gmail.com>
>wrote:
>> Is this a joke?
>>
>
>Well, since the topic isn't wholly a joke, may I offer this bit of
>local knowledge: Use the "Peace Bridge" as your point of entry.
>
>Customs Officials are generally tougher at the "Rainbow Bridge" point
>of entry. I suspect this is because it is nearest to "the falls," and
>they are "on the look-out" for those seeking to harm the falls or
>nearby hydro-electric power plants.
>
>Bring  passport for everyone (or birth records for the very young)!
>
>Gotta love Toronto  -- enjoy!

Hi HP, and all,

That's good info.  Thanks.

I get the concept of having proper docs, not taking plants, food, animals, antiquities, weapons, etc. without proper docs, and not acting like a terrorist.  But I'm especially interested in what to do with my computer.  I have legal stuff, but not necessarily politically correct.  And, things like my tax records and passport records are there, so I wouldn't really want it searched or seized.  Just Google something like border crossing computer horror story, etc., or review archives from the EFF, and similar organizations, and it's easy to find incidences of people being harassed without "enough" cause, and whose rights were violated.  Now, if this doesn't generally apply to the Canada / US border, that's fine with me.  But, I'm wondering if you guys have thoughts about the need to protect information.  Some people encrypt their hard drive, etc.  But, then they can demand you unlock it.  I'm thinking that if I just take a plain vanilla install of Ubuntu, in the unlikely event!
  they want to question us, they can look all they want.  Nothing there to see.

Sincerely,

Ron


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--

Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
Please excuse my potential brevity.

(To whom it may concern.  My email address has changed.  Replying to former
messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the wrong
address.  Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier
770-205-9422
linuxdude AT techstarship.com


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