The entire point of Lavabit was keeping communications secure. It was in fact designed to have the property that you and the government would have liked to "modify" away. The government's position was akin to telling Ford Motors to sell dangerous vehicles to bad people, and then after they refuse forcing them to sell dangerous vehicles to everybody. If you want to outlaw safe vehicles, do that in an open session of Congress. Search warrant proceedings are not the proper fora in which to legislate what sorts of online services are legal.
It's clear that we have different thresholds for the concept of evil.
> The entire point of Lavabit was keeping communications secure. It was in fact designed to have the property that you and the government would have liked to "modify" away.
I truly don't see how that's pertinent. So because Lavabit designed a "secure" service and promised their customers secure communications, their customers, and by extensions Lavabit, are shielded from the judicial process of the country Lavabit resides in? Even in cases when they have the technical capability to comply? Seems a bit much.
Lavabit claimed security, not shielding from the judicial process (they complied with other warrants in the past, supposedly). And if they did claim shielding from the judicial process, then their product did a shit job of backing it up. That they could even technically comply with a warrant makes them just as vulnerable to the judicial process as every other service. How is that the government's fault?
> If you want to outlaw safe vehicles, do that in an open session of Congress. Search warrant proceedings are not the proper fora in which to legislate what sorts of online services are legal.
This statement is ridiculous. The search warrant process is authorized by Congress and issued by the judicial branch. It's no secret. Should every search warrant be run through Congress?
> It's clear that we have different thresholds for the concept of evil.
At least we can agree on that. As I've said, I'm a Snowden supporter, and I've contributed to the Lavabit defense fund. But federal agents investigating a national security leak by issuing a search warrant to a provider located in the continental US whose only means of complying is unlocking their entire service (whose fault is that?) doesn't fit the bill of "evil" for me.
At this point we're probably talking in circles though, so I'll leave my thoughts there.
It's clear that we have different thresholds for the concept of evil.