back to article Florida court's schizophrenic rulings throw mobe passcode privacy into doubt

Two Tuesday court rulings in the strange Sunshine State of Florida have given very mixed messages on the rights of phone users to keep their passcodes private. In a case of suspected child beating, Broward Circuit Court Judge Michael Rothschild sentenced Christopher Wheeler, 41, to 180 days in jail after the passcode he …

  1. GrapeBunch

    Fake News

    First, they set it in Florida; everybody + dog knows that place is batshit crazy.

    Second, the name of one of the celebs is too much like the Vogon boss from "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Julz vs Prostetnic Jeltz? Anyway, the followup story is going to say that Aliens have arrived to deliver eternal peace and prosperity. All we need do is enter the password into the machine within 48 hours. It's the password that YHWH gave us, wayback. Naturally, it's the strongest possible password. In the absence of a Peace and Prosperity password, the machine installs one of the other options. Please let it be Fake News.

    1. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge

      Re: Fake News

      ..All we need do is enter the password into the machine within 48 hours. It's the password that YHWH gave us, wayback. Naturally, it's the strongest possible password.....

      It could be 1,2,3,4. I have that on my luggage...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Fake News

        Did they try 69420, or 5318008? Those are the two funniest numbers that I know of, other than 1729.

    2. GrapeBunch

      Re: Fake News

      Hmm. The 4 upvotes are consistent with approval of the first paragraph. Same observation gets pure upvotes in later discussion here. Ten (so far) downvotes, why? Second paragraph is trivially a replay of the Hyperspace Bypass sequence (which itself was a replay of bureaucratic things that have been happening in offices ever since the brick was invented). The FL court punishes a man for not having a password. A greater power punishes Mankind for not having its password. Straightforward humour. Was it that I played fast and loose with a Sacred Text? If so, I apologize. I thought that the funny god Adams, D gave us those words so that we could know laughter in every way.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Fake News

        "Hmm. The 4 upvotes are consistent with approval of the first paragraph. Same observation gets pure upvotes in later discussion here"

        Welcome to the odd world of Register commentard voting..

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Fake News

          See what i mean?

      2. richardcox13

        Re: Fake News

        > Ten (so far) downvotes, why?

        Not knowing the correct name of every HHGTTG character (across all media)?

        PS. It's Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz (so close, but no upvote!)

  2. Androgynous Cow Herd

    Was wheeler convicted of anything else?

    This reads like, the cops did not have a case, so they made up a crime instead.

    1. Eddy Ito

      Re: Was wheeler convicted of anything else?

      I get it's a contempt charge but it does have that odd recursive feel like arresting someone solely for resisting arrest. Don't iPhones self brick if the wrong code is entered too many times? If so, how many guesses did the cops try before trying the one he gave them?

  3. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Ask Wesley his current phones password. Chances are it'll be the same :-)

  4. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    Big Surprise

    Now you know why Florida is the only US State to have it's own tag on Fark - I used to live there and quite honestly, you couldn't even make up some of the stuff you read in the papers every week. Those Carl Hiaasen books tone it down a lot just to keep it believable.

    1. Frumious Bandersnatch

      Re: Big Surprise

      Yeah. I came comment along the same lines... Where's the Florida tag? That's a thing, right?

    2. Wade Burchette

      Re: Big Surprise

      They call themselves Floridians; we call them Flor-idiots.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Quality article.

    I just surfed in from The Sun's news site so I'm currently easily impressed.

  6. Winkypop Silver badge

    Florida, where people go to...

    ...let their brains die.

  7. Throatwobbler Mangrove

    the two courts didn't apply the same law in different ways. The cases are just different on the facts. There's nothing for the Supreme Court to examine.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Right. So, stay away from Florida and England. Not giving anyone the passcode, to me phone...

  9. 2Nick3

    Sure, except...

    "Many people, including myself, can't remember passwords from a year ago."

    I'd venture to guess that most people, including this lawyer, are using the same passcode on their phone from a year ago.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

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