Judge closes court in computer privacy case

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A federal judge has closed a hearing on whether a man allegedly caught at the U.S.-Canadian border with child pornography on his computer must turn over his password.

A federal magistrate ruled earlier it would be unconstitutional to force Sebastian Boucher of Derry, New Hampshire to disclose his password.

Prosecutors appealed, and yesterday U.S. District Judge William Sessions closed the hearing because the case is still being investigated.

Boucher was arrested in 2006, when U.S. Customs agents say they found child pornography on his laptop computer when he stopped at the Derby Line border checkpoint.

After his arrest, investigators couldn’t examine the computer because it was protected by encryption software.

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