Contempt of court

[m5@vail.tivoli.com (Mike McNally)]

Duncan Frissell writes:
 > >>>Note that a court could cite you for contempt for not complying
 > >>>with a subpoena duces tecum (a subpoena requiring you to produce objects
 > >>>or documents) if you fail to turn over subpoenaed backups.
 > 
 > Assume that your application is running (mirrored) on five
 > machines ...

I think that Mr. Frissell's suggestion falls into the category of what
I've humbly termed "digital flash paper" mechanisms.  In the days of
yore, numbers runners and gangsters and nefarious bad guys would keep
records on cellulose (?) flash paper which could be ignited and
destroyed very rapidly should Elliot Ness be seen approaching the
front door.

Another (simpler) suggestion made by a friend was to devise
motion-sensitive devices which would cause total corruption of
information stored on a disk if it were moved.

My highly esteemed legal opinion is that this could be considered
criminal obstruction of justice, though as with the contempt of court
issue such a charge might be preferrable to one of Sedition :-)

--
Mike McNally