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Lavabit loses contempt of court appeal over Edward Snowden encryption keys
Lavabit loses contempt of court appeal over Edward Snowden encryption keys
Court ruled against Lavabit for refusing to hand over encryption keys to government investigation into NSA whistleblower
Amanda Holpuch
A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a contempt of court ruling against Lavabit, an email service that was used by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Lavabit founder Ladar Levison challenged the contempt of court order issued to him for refusing to provide the government with encryption keys to his secure email service. The fourth US circuit court of appeals Judge G Steven Agee said in the ruling that the court’s decision was made because of a procedural error in the appeal.
The government had issued a a so-called "pen/trap order" to access metadata from the account of a target, thought to be Snowden. The day the order was issued, Levison refused to comply, according to court documents. The decision was followed by another order stating that Lavabit would be in contempt of court if it continued to not comply.
<...>
The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed an amicus brief in the appeal, said the court focused on the procedural aspects of the case unrelated to Lavabit's claims.
"On the merits, we believe it’s clear that there are limits on the government’s power to coerce innocent service providers into its surveillance activities," said ACLU attorney Brian Hauss in an emailed statement. "The government exceeded those limits when it asked Lavabit to blow up its business –and undermine the encryption technology that ensures our collective cybersecurity – to get information that Lavabit itself offered to provide."
- more -
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/16/lavabit-court-ruling-edward-snowden-encryption
Court ruled against Lavabit for refusing to hand over encryption keys to government investigation into NSA whistleblower
Amanda Holpuch
A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a contempt of court ruling against Lavabit, an email service that was used by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Lavabit founder Ladar Levison challenged the contempt of court order issued to him for refusing to provide the government with encryption keys to his secure email service. The fourth US circuit court of appeals Judge G Steven Agee said in the ruling that the court’s decision was made because of a procedural error in the appeal.
The government had issued a a so-called "pen/trap order" to access metadata from the account of a target, thought to be Snowden. The day the order was issued, Levison refused to comply, according to court documents. The decision was followed by another order stating that Lavabit would be in contempt of court if it continued to not comply.
<...>
The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed an amicus brief in the appeal, said the court focused on the procedural aspects of the case unrelated to Lavabit's claims.
"On the merits, we believe it’s clear that there are limits on the government’s power to coerce innocent service providers into its surveillance activities," said ACLU attorney Brian Hauss in an emailed statement. "The government exceeded those limits when it asked Lavabit to blow up its business –and undermine the encryption technology that ensures our collective cybersecurity – to get information that Lavabit itself offered to provide."
- more -
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/16/lavabit-court-ruling-edward-snowden-encryption
Lavabit held in contempt of court for printing crypto key in tiny font (Updated)
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/lavabit-held-in-contempt-of-court-for-printing-crypto-key-in-tiny-font/
Snowden email service Lavabit loses contempt appeal
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27063369
