Minnesota court takes dim view of encryption (News.com)

Minnesota court takes dim view of encryption (News.com)

"We find that evidence of appellant's Internet use and the existence of an encryption program on his computer was at least somewhat relevant to the state's case against him," Judge R.A. Randall wrote in an opinion dated May 3."

I think the judge here is just trying to use what is available to hand this guy a tough sentence. This is not a case where encryption or the internet is going to be illegal. Attorneys and judges do this all the time when looking for a particular outcome to a case, and the pieces and parts of their evidence don't take on a life of their own to form national law (except possibly in an occasional very high-level court/case). All they are saying is that if they have evidence that this person is a pedophile or child pornographer, then they are going to use every resource they can to get a conviction, as well they should. I don't think the fact that PGP (or any other encryption) was one of the many pieces of evidence against this man is anything to panic over.