You won’t believe what email provider Lavabit did to avoid giving the US government its data

Ladar Levison really tried to fight back but ultimately lost on August 8th.

TheNextWeb

The email provider was used by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and Wired reports that according to newly unsealed documents, the US government got a search warrant in July to demand from Lavabit the private SSL keys that protected all Web traffic to the site.

In an attempt at dry humor, Lavabit founder Ladar Levison complied with this by turning over the private SSL keys as an 11 page printout in 4-point type — which the government called “illegible.”

That didn’t work out so well. The court ordered Levison to provide a more useful copy of the SSL keys, but he continued refusing, leading to a fine being slapped on Levison: $5,000 a day starting August 6 till he was willing to hand over what the government wanted.

reply to post by ATSmediaPRO


Uh?! Wow, I mean that was just awesome. No matter if you're with NSA or Lavabit, this was awesome nevertheless. This Ladar has style.

And all that time I thought Ladar had actually complied with NSA! S&F for the info!

ATSmediaPRO
Ladar Levison really tried to fight back but ultimately lost on August 8th.

TheNextWeb

The email provider was used by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and Wired reports that according to newly unsealed documents, the US government got a search warrant in July to demand from Lavabit the private SSL keys that protected all Web traffic to the site.

In an attempt at dry humor, Lavabit founder Ladar Levison complied with this by turning over the private SSL keys as an 11 page printout in 4-point type — which the government called “illegible.”

That didn’t work out so well. The court ordered Levison to provide a more useful copy of the SSL keys, but he continued refusing, leading to a fine being slapped on Levison: $5,000 a day starting August 6 till he was willing to hand over what the government wanted.

Ha...that is funny right there. He should try printing each single character on a single piece of paper next and handing it to them that way....kind of like paying your taxes with actual pennies....I like his style.

print it at 500000 point type face.....no problems about being too small...any good troll will say "too small...let me make it bigger for you...do you have a few trucks full of a4 and toner as this may take a while "

reply to post by ATSmediaPRO

Since they most likely could read the documents with a microscope or high resolution scanner, the repeated demand amounts to the equivalent of scolding a child for not being earnest enough in their apology for misbehavior.

Now get down and kiss my boots, I want to see you smile or I will make you do it again.

reply to post by ATSmediaPRO


4th amendment violation.
I would have told them to go pound sand.
Snowden simply told the truth and in this world telling the truth makes you the enemy of the government and a friend of the citizens.

I wonder if the man is hurting financially..I mean, I know he closed his business himself, but these people hold grudges and don't let go that easily, and now the courts are on their side, that is, there is no indication that the court order came from the Foreign Intelligence Court, (FIC) It just says, United states district court for the Eastern disrict of Virginia.
Apart from that, I have a feeling that the intelligence crowd could have got the access themselves eventually. This whole thing smacks of vindictiveness, and a post warning to anyone else.
Re; the above sentence, Anyone know how these sealed documents became unsealed and published? or was it a deliberate 'leaking' by officialdom.

Why not just give them what they asked for and change all the keys before they can access the data. Better yet, kick the service offshore. There are places in this world that the US and its courts have zero influence when it comes to asking for data. I'm sure Mr. Xi Jinping will be happy to put them in their place.

Why any service provider would want to be US based is beyond me. You have too many restrictions and the government has too much access to data. I am 100% against those that would do illegal activity but whatever happened to doing actual investigative work?

I hope people check the link in the OP, as the papers are revealing as to what the Feds demanded, The terms of their demands,

The information sought of Lavabit's clients is astoundingly and completely thorough.
THey were forcing him to reveal everything from residential addresses to credit card numbers, to private messages...
They required a Fed information Trap on his servers.
They forbade him to reveal their demands under penalty of law.

I read this, and think of all the companies whom have already submitted to NSA demands...

www.scribd.com...

reply to post by ATSmediaPRO


He should have just done what the rest of them do....

Say "I don't Know"

"What is a SSL key?"

ecapsretuo
I hope people check the link in the OP, as the papers are revealing as to what the Feds demanded, The terms of their demands,

The information sought of Lavabit's clients is astoundingly and completely thorough.
THey were forcing him to reveal everything from residential addresses to credit card numbers, to private messages...
They required a Fed information Trap on his servers.
They forbade him to reveal their demands under penalty of law.

I read this, and think of all the companies whom have already submitted to NSA demands...

www.scribd.com...

Well they can't actually do that. Of course you can't reveal classified or people's info but they can't stop you from telling anybody. They can't trump the constitution.

The Bot

Vasa Croe

ATSmediaPRO
Ladar Levison really tried to fight back but ultimately lost on August 8th.

TheNextWeb

The email provider was used by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and Wired reports that according to newly unsealed documents, the US government got a search warrant in July to demand from Lavabit the private SSL keys that protected all Web traffic to the site.

In an attempt at dry humor, Lavabit founder Ladar Levison complied with this by turning over the private SSL keys as an 11 page printout in 4-point type — which the government called “illegible.”

That didn’t work out so well. The court ordered Levison to provide a more useful copy of the SSL keys, but he continued refusing, leading to a fine being slapped on Levison: $5,000 a day starting August 6 till he was willing to hand over what the government wanted.

Ha...that is funny right there. He should try printing each single character on a single piece of paper next and handing it to them that way....kind of like paying your taxes with actual pennies....I like his style.

edit on 10/3/13 by Vasa Croe because: (no reason given)

or he could give it to them and then change all the keys. having them have to make another warrant request each time.

it's just vindictiveness and pettiness that makes them chase Ladar Levison to this degree. It's disgusting!

Vasa Croe

ATSmediaPRO
Ladar Levison really tried to fight back but ultimately lost on August 8th.

TheNextWeb

The email provider was used by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and Wired reports that according to newly unsealed documents, the US government got a search warrant in July to demand from Lavabit the private SSL keys that protected all Web traffic to the site.

In an attempt at dry humor, Lavabit founder Ladar Levison complied with this by turning over the private SSL keys as an 11 page printout in 4-point type — which the government called “illegible.”

That didn’t work out so well. The court ordered Levison to provide a more useful copy of the SSL keys, but he continued refusing, leading to a fine being slapped on Levison: $5,000 a day starting August 6 till he was willing to hand over what the government wanted.

Ha...that is funny right there. He should try printing each single character on a single piece of paper next and handing it to them that way....kind of like paying your taxes with actual pennies....I like his style.

edit on 10/3/13 by Vasa Croe because: (no reason given)

He should make it exactly as many pages as Obamacare, or the Tax Code. Tell the US Govt if it's good enough to be law then it's good enough for you to read it. Tell them to go fuk themselves, no one would touch him then.

"Oh here's a fine for making us read our own Tax Code".

HAHA I love it! That's class.