MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Levison believes that when the government was faced with the choice between getting information that might lead it to its target in a constrained manner or expanding the reach of its surveillance, it chose the latter. The documents, and Levison’s comments to us, suggest that although he is a skeptic, he was willing to work with the government: he offered to write intercept code himself to capture their target’s metadata, and acknowledged that the government might have a right to the person’s information. He was willing to turn that information over, as he did in a case involving child pornography; Lavabit’s archived site in fact explicitly states that one of the reasons its most secure services are available to paying customers only is so that if an account “is used for illegal purposes that money trail can be used to track down the account owner.” But the government refused Levison’s offer. It wanted the keys to everything, so he gave it nothing.
Comments
Video interview here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/7/lavabit_how_one_company_refused_to
by Donal on Tue, 10/08/2013 - 12:36pm
Based on the reporting I have read, Ladar Levison acted ethically in shutting down his business. That is often, usually, an easy thing to do in our day to day activities. It is when there is a significant cost to pay for doing the right thing and no apparent downside, including public knowledge, to doing the wrong thing, that the right action is meaningful and praiseworthy, and worth supporting both in spirit and substance, IMO.
A few years ago I determined to not give any more monetary support to the Democratic Party. That decision has freed up some small amount, about fifty bucks a month max, to support other things which I might still see as offering value and to which I have some emotional or intellectual affinity.
I have not kept a record but most of the time it is either to a relatively small journalistic enterprise or to a legal defense fund. This month it goes to levison's legal defense fund.
https://rally.org/lavabit
As small as the affect of a small monetary gift and overt public support may be, I think it can be argued that that affect is larger and more significant on a national level than is a vote in a national election if you live in a state that is colored either red or blue. The direct benefit to the beneficiary, though still small, is probably immeasurably greater. Any suggestions for next month?
by A Guy Called LULU on Tue, 10/08/2013 - 1:33pm