this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
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[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 66 points 2 days ago (41 children)

That privacy was already long gone by the time of this case.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2232

(a)Destruction or Removal of Property To Prevent Seizure.—
Whoever, before, during, or after any search for or seizure of property by any person authorized to make such search or seizure, knowingly destroys, damages, wastes, disposes of, transfers, or otherwise takes any action, or knowingly attempts to destroy, damage, waste, dispose of, transfer, or otherwise take any action, for the purpose of preventing or impairing the Government’s lawful authority to take such property into its custody or control or to continue holding such property under its lawful custody and control, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

If he hadn't used duress and had just refused, he'd have been fine. Graphine is secure and would have had his back

If he hadn't given them the code and instead left it in his wallet, and they did it themselves, he'd have been fine.

All he had to do was plead the 5th.

He's going to get hit with a felony for destroying data to prevent a search. There are tons of precedents in the 11th Circuit for searching without a warrant.

A duress password is only useful if what you'd be facing is worse than 18 U.S. Code § 2232a, and then only if they don't have enough to convict you already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2rokxux5cU`___`

Dude is just protesting the construction of a large cop training facility near him. I don't know what the fuck he did to get on the FBI radar, but I wish him good luck; he's gonna need it.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Here is my problem with this interpretation...

Is data property? Sure, ideas, concepts, photos, etc can be trademarked/copy-write protected and have some degree of ownership, but I'm talking at a much lower level here... Is the particular configuration of memory on your phone a piece of property? If no, then no property was destroyed by wiping the phone. All of the storage and memory is still intact and functional. If yes, then we must look further...is the position (not the switch itself) of a binary switch (like a light switch) a physical thing that you can own? Would you consider it destroyed if it was switched away from it's original position?

I don't think you could charge him with destroying property... Destruction of evidence maybe, but the property is undamaged and functioning normally.

Other arguments. The cop actually destroyed the data. Or, defendant claims he did not know the cops would use the pin to wipe the phone, and that they just wanted to know what the PIN was.

I wouldn't say there is enough evidence here to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this guy destroyed any property in response to a search. He didn't destroy anything, what was destroyed is arguably not property, and he may not be aware that his duress pin was going to be used on the device in the first place.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

None of that would hold up in court.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Bucees just successfully argued in court that a beaver and an alligator are visually indistinguishable to the common man...

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 day ago

So far, every time I've been outraged about Buckees, they've sued a small business that's trying to file their own trademark. And while I don't like it one bit, trademark law is more or less designed for that exact purpose. Logos don't have to be close, they could just vaguely remind you of another established trademark. The barrier to winning is extremely low, and the fault lies with the shitty, overly vague trademark law that attempts to make trademark owners fight any possible contender.

I don't know if these guys were or were not trying to file a trademark, but I do know the three I looked at so far were begridgingly acceptable by trademark standards.

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