Posted on 08/10/2013 1:25:46 PM PDT by NCjim
Ladar Levison, 32, has spent ten years building encrypted email service Lavabit, attracting over 410,000 users. When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was revealed to be one of those users in July, Dallas-based Lavabit got a surge of new customers: $12,000 worth of paid subscribers, triple his usual monthly sign-up. On Thursday, though, Levison pulled the plug on his company, posting a cryptic message about a government investigation that would force him to “become complicit in crimes against the American people” were he to stay in business. Many people have speculated that the investigation concerned the government trying to get access to the email of Edward Snowden, who has been charged with espionage. There are legal restrictions which prevent Levison from being more specific about a protest of government methods that has forced him to shutter his company, an unprecedented move.
“This is about protecting all of our users, not just one in particular. It’s not my place to decide whether an investigation is just, but the government has the legal authority to force you to do things you’re uncomfortable with,” said Levison in a phone call on Friday. “The fact that I can’t talk about this is as big a problem as what they asked me to do.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
What's stopping him?
It should not be legal for the fedguv to prevent him from explaining what they wanted him to do. That is scary and pathetic.
Execution? No, I’m not kidding. See Breitbart.
Every bit of info that Obama can obtain through spying, etc. Will be used to achieve his political ends.
That’s just who and what he is. For him to deny it is hilarious.
He was told to give up all the decryption information about the services he sells his clients. Orders from your friendly local government that is in no way spying on you....nope, not one effing bit.
Time to move the servers boys...
5.56mm
My guess is a more stringent post facto condition on some earlier nebulous agreement he’d made with them. They browbeat and threatened him IOW.
He says that win would be important for other U.S. businesses. “If there were surveillance bugs in all products coming out of China, would you buy those products?” he asks.
Big hint there: I think the gov wants backdoor access to everything.
“said the company deleted all of its customers’ existing email when it did that. “We’ll try to do something nice for them to numb the pain,” he said. It’s not obstruction of justice if you do it before justice comes calling.”
very nice, but they should have done what Pirate Bay did which is keep moving the servers, something Megaupload dude wasn’t able to do as he was caught snoozing at his own mansion..
Typically, these secret orders, from the secret courts, stipulate jail time for service providers that speak out about the contents of the secret orders. That much was known several years ago.
/johnny
Hmmmm, where is Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon now?
/johnny
obama's big on backdoor access.
See also "goatsie"
/johnny
Free country, huh?
Transparent administration, huh?
I hear Founding Fathers rolling over in their graves.
I guess....probably...it doesn’t matter really whether the coercion, intimidation, and threats are organizational or judicial. We know what the judicial side can do and Holder will be more than willing to do his part. And, we’ve all seen the power that our government organizations have be it the IRS, NSA, FBI, CIA, DHS (illegally or otherwise).
We are now a people who should be at full-scale war with our own government.
JimRob, John? Anything you'd like to add here?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.