by the time he is done wish courts defending their users, Feds will be given chances to copy all users data over and over again about 250 times. So it doesn't matter whether he loses or wins. Not a bit.
I thought it was encrypted. If they are, they can copy user data as much as they want, they will get nothing.
However if it was still running, they could ask him to intercept password, network traffic, etc...
Well, I can't agree with that. I do believe the only way to fight this sort of overreach is in the courts, and in the court of public opinion. Publicly standing up to bullying like this is the only way to provoke larger discussions, and ultimately to stop such actions in the future. In addition he doesn't have permission to just unilaterally wipe all his users' data, even if he wanted to.
It was too late for his users' data the moment representatives of the government walked through the door of their data centre/offices, but their rights he can stand up for, which is what he has done.
Yep. Now I naturally have to e-mail all my friends and work contacts (from my throwaway Gmail address), not to mention the person I know who opened a personal Lavabit account on my recommendation, announcing to all that my e-mail address is changing - and such a message wouldn't be complete without mentioning the reason why, venting a little of my shock and disappointment, and perhaps dropping in a little potted history of the recent developments in government net snooping leading up to this with newspaper article links. Messages that I wouldn't have otherwise sent without this justification, for fear of boring my dear friends, having assumed that any of them who are likely to care about this stuff, will already have read about it themselves without me telling them.
Despite the annoyance of not being able to use my e-mail the past couple of days, and the possibility that the US Gov may have some copies of my e-mail (which I imagine will be perfectly useless to them) I am immensely gratified at the stand Lavabit's owner appears to have taken, and having chosen them in the first place due to these values which I am in broad alignment with, I feel it confirms that it was a good choice, despite the fact that I now have to find another provider. I am sorry for the guy that he's effectively had his business - perhaps his livelihood - pulled out from under him, and I will be donating to his defense fund out of sympathy, though I am not an American.
