The big difference is the fact that a key is a physical object.

A password is not.

On 2/21/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
>
> So, handing over the house key is a legitimate
> demand but handing over the password is not.
>
> One must therefore conclude that the password
> is different than the cryptographic key, i.e.,
> that a demand for the one is not the same as
> a demand for the other.  If one argues that
> they are the same, then one must then describe
> how it is that a citizen can claim that the key
> is property.  It does not seem likely that a
> court of competent jurisdiction would be able
> to find that a key is, simultaneously, property
> and testimony -- that it must be one or the other.
>
> Consider the widespread first world practice of
> requiring DNA swabs at every encounter with the
> gendarmes.  It is neither evidence nor testimony
> if you are innocent (and remain so), but it is
> evidence and hence testimony if you are guilty
> (or become so).  If some idiot savant memorized
> his genome as well as you memorize your password,
> would compelling him to recite it be legitimate,
> or not -- again on the grounds that refusing the
> demand to recite could be overcome merely by
> holding him down long enough to touch a Q-Tip
> to a mucous membrane.
>
> --dan, for the moot court still
>
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