Aussie Cops Want Powers To Search Any Computer

goatherder23 writes in with news that the New South Wales cabinet has proposed new powers for police to search computers anywhere under a search warrant, and adds: "The Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse are invoked to explain why police need the new laws, which have yet to be introduced into Parliament. Would someone please explain to them before this happens that all computers on the Internet are "networked" and that some computers may be found outside NSW (or even Australia)?" "Police Minister David Campbell says police are currently only able to search computer hardware found on a premises named in a search warrant. He says with the changes, they will be able to go a step further and search other networked computers, regardless of where they are located. 'What we know is that there are organized crime gangs who use the Internet and other forms of technology to hide their crimes,' he said."

RTFS

[SanityInAnarchy]

...the New South Wales cabinet has proposed new powers for police to search computers anywhere under a search warrant, and adds: "The Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse are invoked to explain why police need the new laws, which have yet to be introduced into Parliament...."

Read The Fucking Summary. Thank you.

Or, if you still don't get it: The laws have been proposed, not passed. There's still the chance that parliament will figure out the implications and reject the law, in favor of sanity.

Re:Ineffective

[denis-The-menace]

Then just clone the drives and give the suspect the copy and not the original HD.

Re:Ineffective

[AJWM]

Attribution where due, please. From Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which I heartily recommend. It makes especially good reading on a long train ride.

Re:War on What, exactly?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

I'm only an amateur student of history, but I am not aware of any instance where a government, once empowered, has relinquished those powers without force.

Here you go. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Ineffective

[superwiz]

Second to GWB, Carter's presidency is known for the worst handling of the economy in the known US history. I am not sure why you would pick him to handle your wallet.

Re:Get a warrant for one computer, get a warrant f

[Anonymous Coward]

dont forget people, that a Judge has to agree to a search warrant, and the minimum prison term of the suspected offense has to be greater than 3 years (in most cases) before a warrant can be issued.

Re:Get a warrant for one computer, get a warrant f

[Anonymous Coward]

Like the USA?

Transportation to North America happened for a much longer time than it ever did to Australia.

Re:Ineffective

[PhireN]

No, from my memory the person was crossing the border with their laptop in standby, and the encrypted volume containing the child porn was already unlocked.
The Border security officer examined the laptop, saw the porn and confiscated it. Somehow the laptop turned off (maybe the officer turned it off when confiscating it, or it ran out of battery) and the decryption key was cleared from memory, locking the child porn drive again.
Ah, found the article [washingtonpost.com]