Lavabit.com Owner: 'I Could Be Arrested' For Resisting Surveillance Order

Zak3056 writes "NBC News is reporting that 'The owner of an encrypted email service used by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden said he has been threatened with criminal charges for refusing to comply with a secret surveillance order to turn over information about his customers. "I could be arrested for this action," Ladar Levison told NBC News about his decision to shut down his company, Lavabit LLC, in protest over a secret court order he had received from a federal court that is overseeing the investigation into Snowden.''"

Additional Discussion @ Hacker News

[Anonymous Coward]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6222691 [ycombinator.com]

Re:Federal prison

[amoeba1911]

No, staying in public eye will do nothing. Despite all the brainwashing by the media, the majority of American public feels Snowden is a whistle-blower, not a traitor. Yet the government still pursues him as a traitor. There is a huge disconnect between government and people. The government no longer does what's best for the people, the government does what's best for the government at the cost of people. Revealing that the government does unethical things that harm the governed is considered treason. Eventually, speaking out against your government will become a crime as well.

See: ISP owner who fought letter before

[hazeii]

Nicholas Merrill fought this battle before [slashdot.org].

His talk at 27C3 [youtube.com] is very, very interesting and deserves to be more widely known. In particular, watch and listen to his explanations of how carefully he has to choose his words - right down to using "it" for the government person he has to deal with (since giving away "its" gendor could get him 10 years in jail).

Re:Just comply with the court order

[Opportunist]

Let's look up the definition of "dictatorship"...

A government controlled by one person, or a small group of people. In this form of government the power rests entirely on the person or group of people, and can be obtained by force or by inheritance. The dictator(s) may also take away much of its peoples' freedom.

Now, one may argue whether one has to get money by force or inheritance, but else...

No NO NO!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's simply not how it works.

The Root CA creates a self-signed certificate. This is the 'axiom of trust', you have to import this and trust it.

Then there are subsidiary certificates are that are SIGNED by the Root CA.
What this means is the Root CA attests that the public key in the
certificate truly belongs to the Entity named in the certificate.

The Root CA NEVER SEES INTERMEDIATE PRIVATE KEYS.

You can have a private key on a smart card that never, ever
leaves the smartcard and still get your cert signed.

You are very confused.

Re:American Justice

[gmanterry]

America used to be, and I repeat, USED TO BE a country which everyone looked up to., yours truly included

I came from a communist country, and I was so impressed with the United States of America that I ended up becoming a naturalized American citizen.

The place I came from there was no democracy, no human rights, no freedom and no justice, America had everything that I ever hoped for.

However, my American Dream slowly transformed into American Dismay, and finally ended up as American Disgust

From a country which cherishes and champion Human Rights, the United States becomes a country where "Human Rights" is used as a tool to criticize others

Democracy ? It sure is a convenient device to hoodwink the American voters.

Freedom ? If there is any genuine freedom left in the United States of America Mr. Ladar Levison wouldn't have to shut down Lavabit

Justice ? Can whatever that has happened to Mr. Snowden be anything remotely related to "Justice" ?

I find this to be so true. We have lost control of the government because we can't vote out the powerful members of the House and it is impossible to get rid of an incumbent Senator. Just think about it. The reason they can't be gotten rid of is because there no longer is anyone who is middle of the road. The people who vote for Republicans won't vote for a Democrat because they want someone who supports gun rights and religious morality. To reinforce this districts are mapped so that their district contains a majority of like minded voters. So even though they hate their Rep or Senator, (like McCain) they can't bring themselves to vote for the other party. The Democrat voters have the same dilemma, They can't bring themselves to vote for someone who wants to deny rights to gays, and other minorities. Therefore, once you have your seat in the Senate, you are there for life. The only solutions to the entrenched Senators problem are 1) term limits which will never happen. And 2) only slightly easier, repeal of the 17th amendment, which changed the original Constitution from where Senators were appointed by their State Governors. The 17th amendment reduced the power of the States to influence the Federal Government considerably. Term limits are the only way to get rid of entrenched Representatives. The parties seem to discourage members from challenging incumbents. We, the public, ladies and gentlemen, are pretty much screwed.