

Donate to the Lavabit Legal Defense Fund - sethbannon
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=7BCR4A5W9PNN4

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computer
It is important to remind people that they _always_ have a choice, and that
there will be support for those that make the right choice. So donate.

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DevoAKA
Donating to a Lavabit Legal Defence Fund through PayPal seems a bit of an
oxymoron though, no?

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thepumpkin1979
No BitCoin? Well, here is the PRISM query to find out who contributed: SELECT
FROM PayPalTransations WHERE hosted_button_id='7BCR4A5W9PNN4' AND referral_url
like '%news.ycombinator.com%';

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computer
To quote myself from below because I find this issue so important to
highlight:

So what if they can see that you donated to this pro-constitutional defense
fund?

If you want to make a surveillance state less effective, you should generate
_more_ noise, not less. When fascism is at risk of taking over, you don't just
roll over and take it quietly because you fear they'll know you're against it.

As a person who has Nothing to Hide, I encrypt everything, and will gladly
donate here. If we get everybody to use encryption, nobody will be suspect for
using it. If you donate here, there's less risk that others will get hassled
for donating.

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finnh
Just donated $100. Never heard of them before today, but am very happy to
support the fight they are undertaking on all our behalf.

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nodata
For those not trusting random PayPal links, you can click the donation link at
the bottom of this page: [http://lavabit.com/](http://lavabit.com/)

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nkuttler
Thanks. I was really surprised when I saw this on the front page as I wasn't
aware of the fund and didn't see how to verify the recipient.

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fixxer
Google et al. should be donating to them. This would be a nice, indirect, low
risk way to establish legal precedence, wouldn't it?

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siculars
$50 inbound. USA Agitator watch list here I come!

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mjolk
1\. The link doesn't work.

2\. As a non-Lavabit user, who are they and why should I give them money?

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josephpmay
They are(were) a fully-encrypted email provider that had no ability to monitor
your emails. Edward Snowden hosted his account there, and they had to shut
down because of (probably) US government intervention.

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VladRussian2
it starts to sound like providing fully encrypted solution (where provider
just isn't able to cooperate because of no access to plain text) makes the
provider de-facto accessory to whatever crime may be committed by perpetrators
who used the solution while committing the crime. Basically fully encrypted
solution (incl. without government backdoor) moves into the same category as
assault gun, ie. something that regular good citizens supposedly just don't
have legitimate uses for.

~~~
jlgreco
I'm not sure I catch your drift. I don't see how being an accessory enters the
equation at all (how can you be held responsible for providing information you
simply do not have?), and there are no current laws concerning "assault guns".

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unreal37
I get the reasoning. If you provide the ability to communicate securely
without a government backdoor, the government will treat you like you assist
terrorists.

"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." \- George W. Bush,
Sept 20 2001

~~~
jlgreco
That ship has sailed though, unless they really feel like harassing Phil
Zimmermann again...

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33a
Just asking, but how legit is this? Does anyone know who set this up and who
is managing these donations? It is just a paypal page with nothing that
obviously links it to lavabit.

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tlrobinson
Bitcoin, please.

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mieses
Seriously. First they colocate in Texas. Then use Paypal for donations. It's
like they are trying to martyr themselves.

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fnordfnordfnord
I Don't trust Paypal. I sent him something to support@lavabit.com I'll update
if it is rejected or something.

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CompulsiveCo
What legal action are we actually supporting? Defending the rights of a mail
provider to not be directly spied upon by the three letter agencies?
Transparency in regards to NSA letters? I know they are limited in their
speech regarding their legal issues, but is there any explanation on how the
funds will be employed?

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mindstab
Keep in mind all your actions are being observed and collated somewhere. If
you don't want hassle with your next police run in, or worse, don't live in
the US and don't want "special attention" next time at the border, think twice
about donating...

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kmfrk
I don't think anyone here ever takes any pleasure in using PayPal. Especially
with the seizures - maybe that's the biggest concern with using their service.

But that doesn't create an alternative. People have wanted one way farther
back than the NSA info dump.

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microcolonel
Could mail him some gold.

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mathattack
I wish I could give this a dozen upvotes!

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arrowgunz
Poor choice for funding a good cause.

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sp332
The link from the lavabit homepage is [https://www.paypal.com/cgi-
bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_b...](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-
bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=7BCR4A5W9PNN4) which actually works.

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bestdayever
Why didn't you just link to their site which already has the link and explains
why we should be donating to them?

[http://lavabit.com/](http://lavabit.com/)

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ics
It would probably have been caught by the duplicate checker.

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mieses
What did Lavabit think would happen by physically locating servers in the US?
It's almost irresponsible to sell customers on the illusion of privacy and to
not mention the risk of the servers being confiscated.

edit: This whole Lavabit thing is so dumb that I'm inclined to think it was a
honeytrap designed to waste supercomputing cycles on decrypting random data.

