14 DAY TRIAL // Encrypted email provider Lavabit has chosen death over cooperation with the NSA. Details are scarce but, in a message on the Lavabit homepage, owner Ladar Levison explains that he chose to simply shut down the service rather than become "complicit in crimes against the American people."
"After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot," he explains.
As for why the government would be interested in the encrypted email service, other than its regular obsession with spying on everyone, it's an easy guess: Edward Snowden apparently used a Lavabit email address when contacting journalists from the Russian airport where he'd been holed up for the past weeks.
The US government is clearly very interested in any data on Snowden and it's obvious that it thought it could bully the small company into compliance.
Levison explains that he cannot talk about the circumstances that led to his decision, hinting that there is a gag order which he challenged twice already in the past six weeks.
He is preparing a legal fight against the government, a massive undertaking with little chance of success, if history tells us anything. He is accepting donations if you'd like to help.
In the meantime, the email service has been shut down with users being left with no option to migrate or even get their email out.
Some users aren't happy with this, understandably, but many support the tough decision and are happy that the company chose to stand up for their rights.
Some 350,000 to 400,000 people used Lavabit email and were given no warning prior to the shutdown. In fact, the email service went down supposedly for technical reasons a day before Levison posted his message on the Lavabit homepage.
Shortly after Lavabit's announcement, another encrypted email provider, Silent Circle, announced that it was shutting down its email service, preemptively, to ward off any potential government investigation.