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Jonathan Roberts wrote: > > The other thing that effects encryption as protection is that as part > of the RIPA act a person can be required by law to hand over their > encryption keys, with failure to do so resulting in a jail sentence > (with longer sentences for terrorist suspects). I've had conversations > with people who argued that a judge would never recognise this as it > violates your right not to incriminate yourself, but recently a judge > did support this and said there were occasions when this can be > superseded. IANAL but I think UK law doesn't generally protect you against self incrimination, so one would have to lose, and appeal to the European court, who would presumably find in favour of anyone convicted of choosing not to incriminate themselves. Or at least until enough case law is established via the European courts to re-establish the principle of not being compelled to incriminate oneself in UK law. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/734018.stm Either way you are almost certainly best advised to say nothing to the police until you have proper legal representation and advice. As regards encryption keys, that is probably more crucial, as handing over the key is the same as handing over all the encrypted communications, plus the ability to impersonate yourself, and thus attempt entrapment using your identity. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html