

Anything You Search For Can and Will Be Used Against You in a Court of Law - rms
http://singularityhub.com/2011/02/15/anything-you-search-for-can-and-will-be-used-against-you-in-a-court-of-law/#more-27347

======
ceejayoz
Jared Loughner isn't going to be put to death for his search history, he's
going to be put to death (or more realistically, lifetime psych containment)
for killing six people and wounding more than a dozen others, including a
prominent public figure.

Library records have been used in this manner for decades, if not longer. The
records are obtained via due process of law. What's the issue here?

~~~
rms
No, I really think Jared Loughner is going to be put to death for his search
history.

Loughner is obviously insane, but these searches establish _legal_ sanity,
which means knowing the difference between right or wrong, or understanding
the consequences for your crimes. Jared Loughner commmited this crime strongly
expecting that he would be put to death for his actions.

Does the USA even have lifetime psych confinement? Insanity defenses are
almost never successful.

~~~
yummyfajitas
I've heard a proposal, which I generally tend to think is a good idea:
eliminate the insanity defense, but give judges the option to send criminals
to the insane asylum rather than prison.

Does anyone with greater knowledge see flaws with this idea?

~~~
btilly
_Does anyone with greater knowledge see flaws with this idea?_

Yes. There are cases where the insanity defense is clearly correct, and
extended incarceration makes no sense. One example is a man who had become
very abusive to his wife and newborn. Medical tests demonstrated the existence
of a brain tumor. Removal of the tumor removed his uncontrollable rages and
restored his normal state of being. (Along with great remorse over what he had
done.) After that, what purpose would incarceration have served other than to
derive his wife and young child of much needed income?

In practice, though, I've heard that those who are found to be insane will, on
average, wind up incarcerated longer than those who are not. True, it is a
mental hospital rather than a jail. But the effect is similar to what you
indicate. With the twist that discharge happens only after medical
professionals judge that the person has improved, rather than having the
discharge happen according to a guess by the judge.

~~~
yummyfajitas
I hate to add noise to the conversation, but I would like to thank you for
changing my opinion on this matter. I was wrong and now I understand why.

------
sili
Maybe the problem is expectation of privacy when we act in a public sphere
(The Internet). Imagine a situation without a computer where a murder suspect
with an insanity plea was seen weeks in advance browsing a gun store and
asking really specific questions of the clerk. He was acting in public space
and has no expectations of privacy.

Should we amuse that any unsecured, unencrypted activity is equivalent to
doing it in public and if we want privacy than we should encrypt our
communications? Maybe there should be an easy to use mode in browsers which
encrypt your traffic. Any information stored on your computer would be treated
as private in the same way as mail correspondence is.

Also, the judges should really be careful and demand that any search history
evidence presented before them should really be relevant to the case. Just
because I was curious at one point how much a handgun would cost, does not
necessarily mean I am guilty of the murder that I am accused of. The evidence
should be persistent and without doubt linked to the crime.

------
dstein
We are entering what I call the "Orwellian Era" of computing. Google, Apple,
and your data carriers (wired & wireless) are battling it out right now to
become the one all-powerful big brother.

Encryption will absolutely be outlawed in the future.

~~~
rms
No, the cypherpunks have already won.

------
kqueue
This site looks like TC.

~~~
rms
Yes.

