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Comment by 6nf | Hacker News Reader

But I didnt even take a file offline. I just forgot to update it.

I’d expect a court to find against this in the same way it would find against someone communicating the information in a foreign language. It’s the intent and how you use the file that matters to them.

The sticking point is whether you can be compelled to proactively lie by an NSL (when an NSL is actually a gag order, preventing you from talking about NSLs), given freedom-of-speech in the US. But quite a few people agree with you that courts probably wouldn't care about this level of pedantry[1].

[1]: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/03/australia_out...

So you've updated it 45 times and the time you "forgot" to update coincided with the time you got the secret order?

Isn’t there a free speech aspect to canaries? Can the court force someone to publicly tell an explicit lie?

only if you're covert working for 3 lettered agencies can you lie and get away with it. Though they'd get you out some other way to avoid blowing your cover.

I would argue that you brought yourself in this mess. The only valid reason for having a canary is to evade the requirements of the law, so you can't complain.

It's an argument, I'm no fan of secret orders or the government telling you to lie or keep quiet.

Fundamental rights generally override "you got yourself into this mess", don't they?

Well, the right to freedom of movement can be taken away if you've taken yourself into a mess that ends you in prison (and in tens of other cases for that matter).

Fundamental rights can be in conflict with each other. It's not uncommon for a judge to impose gag orders, which ostensibly protects a fair trial, but infringes on a person's rights to talk about a case in public.

A NSL or similar already prevents you from saying something and limits your free speech.

The court will, either way, not be impressed by someone communicating that they got a warrant by not communicating in a previously arranged manner (this is basically communicating in a code language).

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