Why I was forced to shut down Lavabit
This summary is probably misleading. A different perspective on the facts of this case is on display in the 4th Circuit ruling on Levison's contempt charges:<p><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1114251/lavabit-usca4-op.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1114...</a><p>In short: Levison claims that the DOJ demanded access to the content of all his users messages, and implies that after he complied with that order, they escalated to demand his TLS keys.<p>But that doesn't seem to be what happened. A fuller timeline of Lavabit might (please correct me) look like this:<p><i>t-n..t</i>: Levison complies with numerous court orders demanding information about users of Lavabit.<p><i>t</i>: Levison is served with a court order demanding the metadata associated with Snowden. It is unclear whether this demand is actuated by a device that DOJ mandates installation of, but what is clear is that there was a debate between Levison and the DOJ about Levison's capabilities w/r/t/ furnishing the DOJ with information about Snowden's account.<p><i>t+1</i>: Levison refuses to comply with the DOJ order, while indicating that he has the technical capacity to comply with at least some of it.<p><i>t+2</i>: DOJ escalates with a magistrate court order requiring that Lavabit use its technical capabilities to defeat its encryption of Snowden's information --- a capability that Levison acknowledges having, that is obvious from the design of Lavabit, and that has a precedent in other "secure" email providers.<p><i>t+2..t+13</i>: Levison spends 11 days stonewalling DOJ, refusing not only to comply with the order but also to meet with the DOJ. Per the 4th Circuit: "As each day passed, the Government lost forever the ability to collect the target-related data for that day.". Levison is playing chicken, and DOJ is now furious.<p><i>t+13</i>: DOJ arranges to compel Levison to appear at a district court hearing, while reiterating that it requires only the metadata information surrounding Snowden's account.<p><i>t+14..t+17</i>: Levison delays 4 more days.<p><i>t+17</i>: Levison, via his attorneys, replies to the DOJ's order with a counterproposal that involves billing DOJ for his time, collecting a limited set of information, and furnishing it to DOJ only at the conclusion of the entire collection period.<p><i>t+20</i>: DOJ, furious and contending that they've lost all reasonable faith in Levison's cooperation with their investigation, demands the TLS keys for Lavabit in order that they can control the collection of the data they need from Lavabit.<p>Again: please correct details here where I'm wrong.<p>Most readers of this thread will have enormous sympathy for Levison and his efforts to stymie the DOJ's investigation of Snowden through his account on Lavabit.<p>However, a jaundiced, cynical, or purely pragmatic reader might also find grave flaws in Levison's response to this situation. His position on the matter does not appear to have been content-neutral: he complied with previous orders. More importantly, when an order came in for an account he had a personal interest in, he escalated matters so that DOJ would end up compromising <i>everyone's</i> information, by playing a game of chicken he was sure to lose.