In UK you can go to jail for not remembering your password. There's nothing to "yay".

> A 19-year old from Lancashire has been sentenced to 16 weeks in a young offenders institution for refusing to give police the password to an encrypted file on his computer.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/06/jail_password_ripa/

"Forgetting" the password to files comprising the entirety of evidence pertaining to the investigation of a crime is hardly the same as being jailed for forgetting an arbitrary password.

It looks the same to me. If the "files comprising the entirety of evidence" are what's encrypted, then there is no case unless and until they decrypt them. What's to stop them from jailing anyone they want who can't/won't decrypt everything on their computer at demand? This is exactly how police states operate.

A police state doesn't require evil intent. On the contrary, each one starts out with the BEST of intentions.

Hasn't UK just passed an outrageous snooping bill recently?

Yes but we're still protected by DPA and European data protection law.

What does that mean exactly? Why would they pass it if that were true?

It means that if it happens or is required then due process is followed and information is available to us.

However those who do nefarious things certainly don't do email.

The writing on the wall was visible to the Australian government as well, which chanced free trade agreements to keep things local.

How is Australia these days?

The land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy.