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Comment by externalreality | Hacker News Reader

Doesn't this boil down to the "I am willing but unable" situation? The man in this case was the "unwilling but able" situation. My question is wouldn't the man be shifted into the former situation if he just claimed to be now willing but to have forgotten his keys.

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He did claim he'd forgotten the keys. Maybe he changed his mind on that later, but I haven't seen any statement of the sort.

This is a gambit that is often tried by folks in this situation. There is a famous case where someone was held in contempt for decades that you can read about on Wikipedia. At first he refused to turn over ordered monies, but later he had "lost" the money.

So, I'd say, if you're going to try to go with the "I forgot" defense, you'd better be very sure not to give the court a reason to doubt your honesty (e.g. initially refusing then changing your story).

Agreed. I also think it's hard to make the "I forgot" defense without demonstrating an effort to comply. "I tried to help but can't remember", while still suspect, is more compelling than "I can't remember and I don't feel like trying".

Although that makes me wonder if there's any legal incentive not to attempt to comply if you're not confident you remember. Maybe there's some greater legal vulnerability if the failed attempt is interpreted as deceit and treated more seriously than refusal.

The one bright spot is this leads me to hope they can't decrypt at will via some non-public method.

Or they're just not willing to divulge the methods existence for a kiddy porn case.

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