I'm sure many of you have heard about
Lavabit shutting down rather than cooperating with a plan to expose their customers' communications to the government. It was quite a laudable response and, indeed, there was much celebratory banter. Then everybody went home and moved on with their lives.
Then, in response to what had occurred to Lavabit, Groklaw (and separately, SilentCircle), announced it was shutting down, based on what had happened to Lavabit. Response ranged from mystified wonderment, to insinuations that it was a publicity stunt. How that publicity would benefit a company that had just shut down, I don't know. Such is the internet. I suspect that the underwhelming support and negativity arose from the fact that most folks had never heard of Groklaw before the announcement.
So What Was Groklaw?Groklaw was started in 2003 as a blog that reported and discussed legal issues as they related to software. This was mainly centered on free and open-source software, and also included topics related to software patents, DMCA, RIAA and, as a natural consequence, did some reporting on commercial software and their parent companies.
So, how did Groklaw and Lavabit come to be mentioned in the same sentence?
It's pretty simple. Think of people's communications as candy, and software as the candy machine. The government has a key to pretty much every candy machine on the planet for the moment, and can gorge endlessly on their ill-gotten gains. In the real world, that would be every 8 year old's dream. But, much like that 8 year old's reality, the candy machines are continually being upgraded and being made more secure. So the government, unlike the 8 year old, undertook to perpetually have the key to every new candy machine that came on the market.
Comment: See also:
PRISM for your Mind: NSA, WikiLeaks and Israel