On 2013-10-22 12:49, Jim Bell wrote:
The practice of shutting down a service in anticipation of the government showing up and issuing a warrant
Everyone knows, but no one is allowed to publicly say, that these shutdowns are not in anticipation of a warrant demanding all information about all their users regardless of probable cause, but that they received a warrant demanding all information about all their users regardless of probable cause, and are forbidden to say that they received such a warrant, and forbidden to contest such a warrant in court. (yes, it is unconstitutional, but so is the "voluntary" income tax. Just try not volunteering.) (whether search- or
pen-register, or whatever) shows not merely a lack of guts, but also an incredible lack of imagination. For example, I previously pointed out that there is no longer any real basis for keeping records on the metadata involved in in setting up a telephone call:
The government, aware of this, does not demand their records, but a live connection transmitting everything they do to the government as it happens. And if they don't supply the live connection they go to jail, and if they say out loud under their own identities in public that this was the deal they go to jail - one of the ever broader exceptions to freedom of speech that the supreme court is just fine with.