What has to be a huge blow for anyone with PGP or virtually any other encryption program on their computer, (in fact most computers these day come with cryptographic programs pre-installed). A man found guilty on child pornography related charges, was also found to have PGP software on his system and a court ruled that this was admissible as intent to commit and/or hide crimes in his case. This has huge ramifications if you are found guilty of a crime and then they find any cryptography software installed on your computer.
It’s also worth mentioning that the article also points out that the police didn’t claim to actually find anything relevant to their case that was encrypted.
What this amounts to is walking into a shopping centre with a bag, and the police concluding that you had a bag so you were intending to steal something, without actually finding any evidence of you stealing in the bag.
What’s the reference?
The link from my post: http://news.com.com/Minnesota+court+takes+dim+view+of+encryption/2100-1030_3-5718978.html
I believe pretty much every operating system comes with encryption software. Even Windows 95 came with Outlook Express, which does S/MIME. Oh, and let’s not forget, every web browser worth its salt (even ones embedded in cell phones) have “encryption software” in them (SSL support).
What they got him on was the fact it wasn’t installed by default, and while I think he should get everything he deserves without proof he committed crimes with PGP is just plain stupid. See my analogy with going into a shopping centre with a bag.