Re:EFF: forced disclosure of encryption password violates 5t...
by karzeem on Friday July 08, 2011 @10:24PM
(#2744831)
That would probably be the best defense. If the destruction was carried out as part of a regularly scheduled program instead of as a specific response to law enforcement's demand for the data, you might be alright.
Lots of companies automatically delete all email older than six months for this exact reason, actually.
Not a lawyer but...
Courts seem to treat programs as proxies for their owners so if it's a program actively doing some kind of destruction then it probably would be. If you could ensure passively, that the data would become unusable after a certain time period it wouldn't.
A physical example would be an briefcase rigged with small explosives. Opening it without the code or waiting to long to enter the code would trigger it to destroy the contents. I imagine this would be considered willful destruction of the contents. On the other hand, if the materials inside could decay into ash in a short time peroid, then it's not willful destruction.