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Lavabit Loses Contempt Appeal
After being forced to turn over encryption keys (being held in contempt of court for several weeks after initially refusing to comply), secure mail provider Lavabit halted all operations last year. With the assistance of the EFF, an appeal was mounted. Today, the appeals court affirmed the district court decision and rejected the appeal. From Techdirt:
"The ruling does a decent job explaining the history of the case, which also details some of the (many, many) procedural mistakes that Lavabit made along the way, which made it a lot less likely it would succeed here. ... The procedural oddities effectively preclude the court even bothering with the much bigger and important question of whether or not a basic pen register demand requires a company to give up its private keys. The hail mary attempt in the case was to argue that because the underlying issues are of 'immense public concern' (and they are) that the court should ignore the procedural mistakes. The court flatly rejects that notion: 'exhuming forfeited arguments when they involve matters of “public concern” would present practical difficulties. For one thing, identifying cases of a “public concern” and “non-public concern” –- divorced from any other consideration –- is a tricky task governed by no objective standards..... For another thing, if an issue is of public concern, that concern is likely more reason to avoid deciding it from a less-than-fully litigated record....'"
That's what's great about the legal system. Procedural rules trump right and wrong.
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I think that level of hell is reserved for all the judges and lawyers that don't give a damn about right, wrong, just or unjust but are only concerned that the rules are followed to the dot.
They are the ones that make the legal system into a "the richest one wins" system. That we could have without wasting all that money on having courts.
That isn't how this started. Lavabit had apparently complied with much more limited surveillance demands in the past, but then decided they weren't going to do that any more. Since they wouldn't comply with the narrow demand things escalated, Lavabit didn't comply, and things escalated again. Eventually Lavabit was hit with contempt and produced this outcome. This one rests on Lavabit. It appears likely they defied the law to help Snowden, and they are their customers lost out.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
All this and other recent court proceedings make me miss Groklaw more and more! PJ where are you? Wahhhhhhhhhhh!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Lavabit had apparently complied with much more limited surveillance demands in the past, but then decided they weren't going to do that any more... This one rests on Lavabit.
This is true. Once you sell your soul, it's pretty tricky business trying to buy it back.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Their business plan was premised on a promise they couldn't legally keep. Not a good position to be in.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
I think that level of hell is reserved for all the judges and lawyers that don't give a damn about right, wrong, just or unjust but are only concerned that the rules are followed to the dot.
Think about what you just posted. Essentially you are saying that there should be a Get Out of Jail Free card at the end because you didn't cooperate during the trial but you think the case is really, really important. Not gonna happen my friend.
No, there should be a Get Out of Jail Free card at the end because you didn't do anything wrong. People who didn't do something wrong shouldn't be in jail, period. People who are innocent shouldn't HAVE to cooperate during the trial - the court should be apologizing to them for dragging them through the trial in the first place.
We are not the Government's children, we are citizens. You completely lose all credibility with that line. Defiance is not always a legitimate excuse to swing the hammer of the state harder.
Good-bye
There I fully agree. In fact I lay the blame for all this crazy bullshit on Congress. They write crazy laws that are then pursued with abandon by a crazy legal system.