-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Tim May wrote: [...]

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However, what if Joe is _also_ one's lawyer? Does attorney-client privilege apply here? Perhaps....

and Professor Froomkin responded:

NO IT DOES NOT. Basic rule of thumb: your lawyer can't be used to hide papers someone else can't hide. Ok, at the margin it gets tricky, but bascially the privilege is not going to stretch to your key.

Professor Froomkin is right (IMO) but I think that the way he puts this understates the size of the margin when it comes to cryptokeys. If I were a US Attorney, I would bide my time and pick a hard case, involving lots of potentially incriminating (and therefore tempting) encrypted files, an available key, and (at least) two horsemen. The unavailability of the key can then be presented as a "technicality," allowing a bad guy to possibly get off. After I get some precedent it can then be streched over those inconvenient provisions in the Bill of Rights. This is how "hard cases make bad law."

...

solution is also fully legal at this time: use only offshore key storage. >> A U.S. subpoena to Vince's Offshore Key Repository will carry no weight in Anguilla. (Can I be compelled to ask Vince to send my key? Sure. But Vince and I could have a stipulation that such "duress requests" will not be honored, no matter how loudly I squawk.)

An interesting issue, likely to be addressed in future judicial assistence treaties...

I agree, but if I were sitting at Anguilla's side of the table (I won't be, and I have no idea what they will do) this point would be a *very* expensive one. Anguilla and other tax-haven countries have little to gain and much to lose by becoming less friendly to the financial privacy of the Vince Cates of this world. JMR Regards, Jim Ray <liberty@gate.net> "Isn't it true that the exponential and incredible growth of the Internet came about because the government kept their hands off of it?" -- Judge Stewart Dalzell. _______________________________________________________________________ PGP key Fingerprint 51 5D A2 C3 92 2C 56 BE 53 2D 9C A1 B3 50 C9 C8 Public Key id. # E9BD6D35 -- http://www.shopmiami.com/prs/jimray _______________________________________________________________________ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Freedom isn't Freeh. iQCVAwUBMVf2321lp8bpvW01AQGJnQP8DAhTpnU2memnJta0muU1K2d0N7nhgCwK FCR0R5N6VCJbYu4rXovTlSXevWOkCOPasbZ6DKCzDGHFzQc9KUyc1FCbB4tlYqCr taGXcNKkYafQYF9VBGxUcuOhCb04TvOV1r3+QGqQ7OFvNJppF1YEsUBaO3MclFGW nDetMEwEtJI= =Mu5a -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----