Ralf Mardorf wrote: > Zenaan Harkness wrote: > > Wow (what hubris by NSA/USA)! Did any arrest take place for shutting > > down Lavabit (sorry, no time to read just now)? Either way, nice to > > see integrity/principle prevail in a human. > > The Wiki doesn't give more information. I suspect that they can't arrest > him, if they would do, the American folks perhaps wouldn't tolerate > this. Bruce Schneier recently blogged about this topic with an interesting observation. I will quote a small snippet of it. I recommend that you read the entire article for all of the context. NSA intimidation expanding surveillance state by Bruce Schneier http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/08/27/nsa-snowden-russia-obama-column/2702461/ https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-1309.html#2 ... If you run a business, and the FBI or NSA want to turn it into a mass surveillance tool, they believe they can do so, solely on their own initiative. They can force you to modify your system. They can do it all in secret and then force your business to keep that secret. Once they do that, you no longer control that part of your business. You can't shut it down. You can't terminate part of your service. In a very real sense, it is not your business anymore. It is an arm of the vast US surveillance apparatus, and if your interest conflicts with theirs then they win. Your business has been commandeered. ... To be fair, we don't know if the government can actually convict someone of closing a business. It might just be part of their coercion tactics. Intimidation, and retaliation, is part of how the NSA does business. Bob
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