NSLs, gag-orders, code-changes, coerced backdoors - any tech response? (Re: Lavabit and End-point Security)

[Stephan Neuhaus]

On 08/22/2013 02:58 AM, Lee Azzarello wrote:
> Alexander Galloway wrote a wonderful text on decentralized control titled
> Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization. Worth the read.

Really?  From the MIT Press's blurb:

"In Protocol, Alexander Galloway argues that the founding principle of 
the Net is control, not freedom, and that the controlling power lies in 
the technical protocols that make network connections (and 
disconnections) possible. He does this by treating the computer as a 
textual medium that is based on a technological language, code. Code, he 
argues, can be subject to the same kind of cultural and literary 
analysis as any natural language; computer languages have their own 
syntax, grammar, communities, and cultures. Instead of relying on 
established theoretical approaches, Galloway finds a new way to write 
about digital media, drawing on his backgrounds in computer programming 
and critical theory. "Discipline-hopping is a necessity when it comes to 
complicated socio-technical topics like protocol," he writes in the 
preface."

Oh dear.

Stephan