[TennesseeProfessor]

I think it's reasonable to subponea any email used by Snowden. But I don't think that would cause Lavabit to shut down rather than comply. And whatever it is that is going on, I'm outraged that Ladar Lavison is not allowed to even discuss it.

[nvscanman]

Whether these “secure” service providers cave in and cooperate
or shut down and close shop doesn’t matter to the government.
Either outcome is a win for them as the goal is to either surveil
ALL electronic traffic or stop it .

It’s all about total control....either result satisfy’s that agenda.

[TChad]

This article is by the vile JournoList member Spencer Ackerman. Here's his most famous JournoList quote:

"If the right forces us all to either defend (Jeremiah) Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they've put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares – and call them racists."

That should have ended his writing career. Do you really think that FR is an appropriate place to post his articles?

[Bobalu]

Levison is a good man!

I will support him with my business in any new venture he starts...he just got a HUGE gold star for this action.

[LyinLibs]

[wastedyears]

Was just reading this. I wouldn’t be surprised if the government threatened to hit him with as many counts of conspiracy as e-mails Snowden had sent if they didn’t close down.

Whatever Snowden leaked, was probably very, very important. I bet the information he still has is likely even more important.

[expat1000]

Probably would have been better off with Hushmail

We are committed to the privacy of our users, and will absolutely not release user data without an order that is legally enforceable under the laws of British Columbia, Canada, which is the jurisdiction where our servers are located. However, if we do receive such an order, we are required to do everything in our power to comply with the law. Hushmail will not accept an order from any authority or investigative agency that is not enforceable under the laws of British Columbia, Canada. Please read our Privacy Policy for more information.

But I thought the data was always encrypted
When one Hushmail user sends an email to another Hushmail user, the body and attachments of that email are kept on our server in encrypted form, and under normal circumstances, we would have no access to that data. We can’t just pick an arbitrary encrypted email message off the server and read it. An encrypted email message cannot be decrypted without the passphrase, and in the normal course of operations, we do not store passphrases. However, we may be required to store a passphrase for an account identified in a court order enforceable in British Columbia, Canada.

[Right Wing Assault]

I hope Levison doesn’t have any “accidents.”

[xzins]

I think it's reasonable to subpoena any email used by Snowden.

It is not reasonable to ask any American to participate in violating the Constitutional rights of other US citizens.

The case is fairly simple. (1) The US can listen to the communications of foreign enemies whether they're talking to US citizens or not. This is allowed by law. (2) The US cannot collect/listen to communications (any variety) of US citizens. This is not allowed by law (or constitution), and there is good reason to believe it has been taking place.

The 2nd is what Snowden revealed and is what makes him a whistleblower instead of a spy/traitor.

And it's also why listening to any email used by Snowden is not acceptable. If it's in contact with foreign enemies, then go ahead and listen. If not, then there's no reason for it.

[PghBaldy]

While I blame all presidents since at lest WWII for helping to bring this about, especially GWB, this is happening under Obama. He has taken it to a new level. A level so low and vile, that if a Republican had done this, we would have marches in streets, with literally hundreds of thousands Americans participating. Obama will continue all of this because he knows he can. He needs to be stopped by Congress. I am now starting to see that Rand Paul has a chance in 2016, if he plays his cards right. Assuming we still have an election then.

[Biggirl]

Revolt is coming.

[Notary Sojac]

What we are going to see is a lot of cloud-based business activity moving off U.S. shores.

Businesses with trade secrets and details of negotiations to protect - not illegal by any stretch - are going to want to minimize the risk of bureaucratic surveillance.

This will cost our economy bigtime. For example:

How Much Will PRISM Cost the U.S. Cloud Computing Industry?

[Eleutheria5]

If he doesn’t want the federal government telling him what to do, he could move to the Cayman Islands and offer his service there, and make it a satellite-only service provider. The federal government would no longer have jurisdiction.

[Lazamataz]

I think it's reasonable to subponea any email used by Snowden. But I don't think that would cause Lavabit to shut down rather than comply. And whatever it is that is going on, I'm outraged that Ladar Lavison is not allowed to even discuss it.

Guarantee you it's not about Snowden, but about opening the system up, to the feds, for ALL users.

[Fast5]

So, if I send myself an email with several ‘key words’, would I get the full force of BB no-knocking on my door?

[KosmicKitty]

E-mail get subpoenaed all time - both for criminal and civil cases.

If every e-mail provider who got a subpoena shut down, we would have no e-mail.

Gotta be something more here.

[I want the USA back]

It’s obvious the gestapo wanted a decryption key or a ‘backdoor’ so they could read all emails. They don’t just look at from and to headers, like they claim.

[HomeAtLast]

“I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work...”

What an unprecedented display of principles. Sounds like a moral extremist. /s

I often urge taxpayers to make such a difficult choice. They always prefer not to walk away from their years of hard work, and go right on financially supporting the government. If their tax money goes toward murdering infants and supplying terrorists with weaponry and moochers with free stuff, so what?

[Buckeye McFrog]

NASDAQ Tip for the Day:

BUY sneakymail.ru

[Lucky9teen]

I saw this on Facebook....


Meet the man who stood up to the U.S. Government and the NSA: Ladar Levison! Rather than give the government access to all the users' data (encrypted password...s, etc), he refused and shot down the servers and his company. Ten arduous years of work went down the tube. Like Edward Snowden, he put his well being on the back burner in order to stand up for our country, for Liberty and the Constitution. He dared to stand up to this rogue government. Here is the story:

When Edward Snowden emailed journalists and activists in July to invite them to a briefing at the Moscow airport during his long stay there, he used the email account “edsnowden@lavabit.com” according to one of the invitees. Texas-based Lavabit came into being in 2004 as an alternative to Google’s Gmail, as an email provider that wouldn’t scan users’ email for keywords. Being identified as the provider of choice for the country’s most famous NSA whistleblower led to a flurry of attention for Lavabit and its encrypted email services, from journalists, and also, apparently, from government investigators. Lavabit founder Ladar Levison announced Thursday that he’s shutting down the company rather than cooperating with a government investigation (presumably into Snowden).

Lavabit’s website now displays a message about the shutdown, available in full below, along with a request for help paying the legal bill to fight the government in court.

“I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit,” writes Levison. “After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations.”

Presumably, the government is seeking access to Edward Snowden’s email, email metadata, passwords or encryption keys. And presumably, Levison doesn’t want to grant that access.

“I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States,” writes Levison, based on his experience. This message seems to be a loud and clear one. Washington, D.C.-based think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation predicts that U.S. cloud companies will lose from $21.5 to $35 billion over the next three years. They admit that it is a “rough guess” based on surveys about the chilling effects of the NSA leaks on cloud businesses.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/08/08/email-company-reportedly-used-by-edward-snowden-shuts-down-rather-than-hand-data-over-to-feds/

*****

My Fellow Users,

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on–the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.

What’s going to happen now? We’ve already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company.

This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.

Sincerely,
Ladar Levison
Owner and Operator, Lavabit LLC

https://lavabit.com/

[Red in Blue PA]

“A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies… If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications.”

Tim Robbins
April 15, 2003