Decius wrote:

I don't think it has ever come up. Ultimately, how could they compell you to disclose the password absent a law which allows them to penalize you for failing to do so?

Well, I'd like to accept that, but I can imagine some sort of generic "non-cooperation" catchall in the existing laws. At least they might have some detention capacity, like not letting you leave for X hours (days?) or seizure of the laptop and a citation or something. As you implied, I don't trust that the application of laws in this arena is likely to fair or rational and the result is that i don't want to fly internationally, at least not with my computer.

Also, I'm concerned that it's only a matter of time before this authority expands and pretty soon the TSA monkeys are doing it for domestic flights too. can you imagine the disruption? will people see it as a violation of constitutionally protected rights, or will they roll over? I'm not confident.

Blah. Makes me unhappy.

p.s. a bit of grammar nazism, you meant to say "hear-hear!" or "hear! hear!". The phrase decends from the English parliament, where it was originally "Hear him!" to express assent or support. According to my Oxford, sometime in the 18th century it became "Hear! Hear!" as we currently say it.

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