[Cryptography] hard to trust all those root CAs

[John Gilmore]

> > For January, we have not received any Nation Security Letters this month.
> > On the month you receive one, you stop putting such notices out, and sell t=
> he now-useless business.

> Yeah, and the judge and prosecutor who get your case will be
> helpless before your clever skills at evading them, because they've
> never had to deal with literal-minded people trying transparent
> dodges to get around the law before.

NSL's don't involve a judge.  Nor even a prosecutor.  They are an
investigative tactic, used by the FBI (or the FBI proxying for NSA),
long before a prosecutor is usually involved.

The more likely it is that you will disclose a government request for
snitching on your customers, the less likely it is that that request
will ever arrive.  Shining sunlight on spook activities is the best
way to make them crawl back into their hole.

> You will doubtless enjoy the same success as tax protesters do when
> they end up in court.  And shortly thereafter, you'll enjoy an
> all-expenses-paid vacation with free room and board, courtesy of the
> US government.

Chuckle chuckle, just like the headlines about marijuana reform for
decades.  First they laugh at you, etc.  But the joke doesn't excuse
the iron fist you are trying to invoke to influence people.
Mr. Kelsey, you usually don't fall to this level of "be afraid, the
[government] terrorists are coming" propaganda.

Ladar Levison, Mr. Lavabit, the last guy to do exactly what was
suggested, is still out walking the streets -- and starting new
companies that offer to protect their customers from covert
surveillance.  As often occurs, the spooks were less interested in
smashing a guy who's standing up for the rights of the public, than
they were in preventing a detailed public airing of what they were up
to when they ran into him.

	John