CC illegal in UK

by **natty dread** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 12:36 am

http://falkvinge.net/2012/07/12/in-the- ... noise-too/

Apparently, random noise is now illegal in the UK.

Since Conquer Club uses atmospheric noise for dice generation, and stores datasets of noise on its servers, running CC would be illegal within the UK.

by **greenoaks** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 2:47 am

it is only illegal to not provide an encryption key.

by **Upgrayedd** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 8:10 am

UK has always been an oppressive fascist regime this changes nothing. If you truly wish to be free you must travel to a country without a pervasive, all powerful government. This rules out all of Europe as well as USA and Canada.

by **natty dread** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:26 am

greenoaks wrote:it is only illegal to not provide an encryption key.

Did you read the article? If the police think a file in your possession is encrypted, even when it's not, you can be convicted because you can't provide a key to unencrypt it. This happened to someone who had a file containing random noise.

Also, it's not only illegal to "not provide" it - if you possess an encrypted file, but don't actually possess a key to decrypt it - you can be convicted. Someone sends you an encrypted email, and you are technically breaking the law if you can't provide a key for it.

is this crazy or what

by **john9blue** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 10:00 am

i thought cc just used sets of randomly generated numbers from random.org? cc itself doesn't generate the numbers.

regardless, this law is bullshit and is indicative of the usual technological incompetence by legislators of any country.

by **natty dread** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 10:07 am

john9blue wrote:i thought cc just used sets of randomly generated numbers from random.org? cc itself doesn't generate the numbers.

It doesn't matter, CC still caches the numbers on its own servers in arrays of 50 000 numbers.

But it doesn't actually matter - with the UK legislation, almost any file with any kind of data can be considered "encrypted", the prosecutor has no burden of proof to show that a file contains encrypted data - all they have to do is claim the defendant is in possession of encrypted data and if the defendant is unable to provide a decryption key - either because the defendant doesn't have one or because one doesn't exist... and it's up to 5 years in jail.

What the f*ck, UK? For one thing, people should be entitled to privacy - if you want to encrypt your data, you should have no obligation to provide any kind of decryption key to anyone.

by **john9blue** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 10:25 am

so i could bash my head against my keyboard and produce an OT forum post a bunch of random letters, and then be arrested because these random letters are the encrypted location of weapons of mass destruction.

seems legit

by **natty dread** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 10:47 am

Yep, that's basically it

by **greenoaks** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:57 am

natty dread wrote:
greenoaks wrote:it is only illegal to not provide an encryption key.

Did you read the article? If the police think a file in your possession is encrypted, even when it's not, you can be convicted because you can't provide a key to unencrypt it. This happened to someone who had a file containing random noise.

Also, it's not only illegal to "not provide" it - if you possess an encrypted file, but don't actually possess a key to decrypt it - you can be convicted. Someone sends you an encrypted email, and you are technically breaking the law if you can't provide a key for it.

is this crazy or what

did you read the article?

atmospheric noise is not illegal. it is only illegal to not provide an encryption key.

by **john9blue** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:59 am

greenoaks wrote:
natty dread wrote:
greenoaks wrote:it is only illegal to not provide an encryption key.

Did you read the article? If the police think a file in your possession is encrypted, even when it's not, you can be convicted because you can't provide a key to unencrypt it. This happened to someone who had a file containing random noise.

Also, it's not only illegal to "not provide" it - if you possess an encrypted file, but don't actually possess a key to decrypt it - you can be convicted. Someone sends you an encrypted email, and you are technically breaking the law if you can't provide a key for it.

is this crazy or what

did you read the article?

atmospheric noise is not illegal. it is only illegal to not provide an encryption key.

if one was to decrypt atmospheric noise, what would they find?

by **natty dread** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 12:00 pm

greenoaks wrote:
natty dread wrote:
greenoaks wrote:it is only illegal to not provide an encryption key.

Did you read the article? If the police think a file in your possession is encrypted, even when it's not, you can be convicted because you can't provide a key to unencrypt it. This happened to someone who had a file containing random noise.

Also, it's not only illegal to "not provide" it - if you possess an encrypted file, but don't actually possess a key to decrypt it - you can be convicted. Someone sends you an encrypted email, and you are technically breaking the law if you can't provide a key for it.

is this crazy or what

did you read the article?

atmospheric noise is not illegal. it is only illegal to not provide an encryption key.

Article which I did read wrote:But it’s worse than that. Much worse. You’re not going to be sent to jail for refusal to give up encryption keys. You’re going to be sent to jail for an inability to unlock something that the police think is encrypted. Yes, this is where the hairs rise on our arms: if you have a recorded file with radio noise from the local telescope that you use for generation of random numbers, and the police asks you to produce the decryption key to show them the three documents inside the encrypted container that your radio noise looks like, you will be sent to jail for up to five years for your inability to produce the imagined documents.

by **vodean** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 12:16 pm

Upgrayedd wrote:UK has always been an oppressive fascist regime this changes nothing. If you truly wish to be free you must travel to a country without a pervasive, all powerful government. This rules out all of Europe as well as USA and Canada.

and the countries you just named (with the exception of Canada, being that it isnt a real country) are the best in the world. just ask Meles Zenawi what he thinks of free speech (if he's even alive, which he may not be. Its a state secret, and no one is talking.)

by **Upgrayedd** on Sat Jul 21, 2012 7:23 pm

vodean wrote:
Upgrayedd wrote:UK has always been an oppressive fascist regime this changes nothing. If you truly wish to be free you must travel to a country without a pervasive, all powerful government. This rules out all of Europe as well as USA and Canada.

and the countries you just named (with the exception of Canada, being that it isnt a real country) are the best in the world. just ask Meles Zenawi what he thinks of free speech (if he's even alive, which he may not be. Its a state secret, and no one is talking.)

You can't judge a country's worth without criteria. The relevant criteria we have is FREEDOM index. Therefore USA and Europe (thank you for excluding Canada) are the worst "countries" in the world.

by **GabonX** on Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:08 pm

Like OMG.. You guys don't keep track of your CC encryption keys? How fucking irresponsible can you be?

by **Campin_Killer** on Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:16 pm

I lost my encryption key baseball...not any encryption keys or anything

by **TheForgivenOne** on Wed Jul 25, 2012 2:32 am

john9blue wrote:
greenoaks wrote:
natty dread wrote:
greenoaks wrote:it is only illegal to not provide an encryption key.

Did you read the article? If the police think a file in your possession is encrypted, even when it's not, you can be convicted because you can't provide a key to unencrypt it. This happened to someone who had a file containing random noise.

Also, it's not only illegal to "not provide" it - if you possess an encrypted file, but don't actually possess a key to decrypt it - you can be convicted. Someone sends you an encrypted email, and you are technically breaking the law if you can't provide a key for it.

is this crazy or what

did you read the article?

atmospheric noise is not illegal. it is only illegal to not provide an encryption key.

if one was to decrypt atmospheric noise, what would they find?

Ponies.