cjd sent me this. he's on the list now too.

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Change of email address
From:    "Caleb James DeLisle" <cjd@???>
Date:    Fri, August 9, 2013 11:26 pm
To:      "Caleb James DeLisle" <cjd@???>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

As some of you probably already know, my former email address and the
provider
of my email service, Lavabit.com, is no more.

Four years ago I was searching for a free email provider when I found
lavabit.com.
It wasn't the only mail provider around but I was attracted to the cute geeky
minimalism of the website and the earnest if not naive dedication to
privacy. In an age
when privacy is seen as an old thing like chivalry or neat handwriting,
lavabit stood
alone, fighting the market for what they believed in. Fighting for the
belief that a
moment shared between friends, family or loved ones is more than a datum
to be
refined into marketing intelligence. While we the web2.0 kids flagrantly
exposed
ourselves, they stood by like a patient father, believing that we were
worth more than
that, and betting their very livelihood that we would come to recognize
modesty in
a digital age.

What Lavabit built was no less than a marvel. They used cryptography to
assure that
your email could not be read without your login password, even by the
administrator
of the lavabit server. Over the past 4 years I've recommended only Lavabit
to friends
and family and I had only one major email address myself. Lavabit was
obviously a
labor of love, privacy just isn't profitable. Since I had only my word of
mouth to offer,
I didn't mind the occasional outage or the emails sending slowly. The
bumps along the
road were just part of the charm.

Five days ago Lavabit stopped responding, this was not a major issue it
had happened
before but after twelve hours of downtime I became worried. I decided to
sit tight and
see what happens and after about two days and a steadily growing mob of
fellow
users began complaining on the web, the owner finally decided to pull the
plug.

The Lavabit homepage which had previously said only that the site was down
for
maintenance now read that the operator, Ladar Levison, had chosen to shut
down the
site rather than "become complicit in crimes against the American people"
and that a
gag order prevented him from saying anything else. Over time it became
known that
Lavabit had been ordered to provide information in previous child abuse
cases and
had readily complied (in so far as their cryptography would allow) so
whatever happened
this time had to have been more extreme than a routine search warrant. It
also became
known that the tiny email provider has been used by none other than Edward
Snowden.

If agents demand that the post office hand over letters, those letters
still need to be
opened leaving obvious evidence that they had been read. In a computer
there is no
such evidence so the same demand placed upon an email provider, requires
that they
deceive their own customers by implying that everything is normal. This
demand that
Ladar breach the trust of his users and actively conspire against them is
probably what
pushed him over the edge.

Whatever it might have been, lavabit and calebdelisle@??? are no
more.
My past email is safe because I always preferred to download my email to
my laptop
using Thunderbird mail. Although it is indeed inconvenient to change my
address I am
proud to have been in a small way associated with a Man who as far as we
know, stood
to the end for what he believed in.

After four years with Lavabit, can't bring myself to use Gmail or Hotmail
or any other of
the glitzy glamorous mail services who would no doubt roll over at the
drop of a hat so
I'm the proud user number one of the new hyperboria.ca mail service. It
isn't as nice as
gmail and it isn't as secure as lavabit but it's run by people, myself
included, who think
that email is more than a tool to collect marketing information.
Hyperboria.ca is only
accessible to members of the Hyperboria network because I don't have the
time nor the
will to run a "real" mail server.

If everybody does just one thing for the sake of privacy, use Thunderbird.
You can use it
with your normal email account and once you've tried it you'll never go
back to typing
passwords into a website. With Thunderbird you can not only have your
email on your PC
instead of "in the cloud" but you can also use the Enigmail PGP extension.
PGP stands for
"Pretty Good Privacy" and it allows you to send mail which nobody but the
recipient can
read. I use PGP to email my mom, not because we "have something to hide"
but because a
conversation between a mother and son is not a national security matter
and it certainly
isn't "marketing intelligence". We are people, we are worth more than that
and you are too.
If you're not technically inclined then ask a friend or family member, if
they're not familiar
with Thunderbird and PGP then it's high time they learned!

Thanks,
Caleb

tl;dr new email is cjd@???

    As some of you probably already know, my former email address and
    the provider

    of my email service, Lavabit.com, is no more.

    Four years ago I was searching for a free email provider when I
    found lavabit.com.

    It wasn't the only mail provider around but I was attracted to the
    cute geeky

    minimalism of the website and the earnest if not naive dedication to
    privacy. In an age

    when privacy is seen as an old thing like chivalry or neat
    handwriting, lavabit stood

    alone, fighting the market for what they believed in. Fighting for
    the belief that a

    moment shared between friends, family or loved ones is more than a
    datum to be

    refined into marketing intelligence. While we the web2.0 kids
    flagrantly exposed

    ourselves, they stood by like a patient father, believing that we
    were worth more than

    that, and betting their very livelihood that we would come to
    recognize modesty in

    a digital age.

    What Lavabit built was no less than a marvel. They used cryptography
    to assure that

    your email could not be read without your login password, even by
    the administrator

    of the lavabit server. Over the past 4 years I've recommended only
    Lavabit to friends

    and family and I had only one major email address myself. Lavabit
    was obviously a

    labor of love, privacy just isn't profitable. Since I had only my
    word of mouth to offer,

    I didn't mind the occasional outage or the emails sending slowly.
    The bumps along the

    road were just part of the charm.

    Five days ago Lavabit stopped responding, this was not a major issue
    it had happened

    before but after twelve hours of downtime I became worried. I
    decided to sit tight and

    see what happens and after about two days and a steadily growing mob
    of fellow

    users began complaining on the web, the owner finally decided to
    pull the plug.

    The Lavabit homepage which had previously said only that the site
    was down for

    maintenance now read that the operator, Ladar Levison, had chosen to
    shut down the

    site rather than "become complicit in crimes against the American
    people" and that a

    gag order prevented him from saying anything else. Over time it
    became known that

    Lavabit had been ordered to provide information in previous child
    abuse cases and

    had readily 

complied

    (in so far as their cryptography would allow) so whatever happened

    this time had to have been more extreme than a routine search
    warrant. It also became

    known that the tiny email provider has been used by none other than
    Edward Snowden.

    If agents demand that the post office hand over letters, those
    letters still need to be

    opened leaving obvious evidence that they had been read. In a
    computer there is no

    such evidence so the same demand placed upon an email provider,
    requires that they

    deceive their own customers by implying that everything is normal.
    This demand that

    Ladar breach the trust of his users and actively conspire against
    them is probably what

    pushed him over the edge.

    Whatever it might have been, lavabit and 

calebdelisle@???

    are no more.

    My past email is safe because I always preferred to download my
    email to my laptop

    using Thunderbird mail. Although it is indeed inconvenient to change
    my address I am

    proud to have been in a small way associated with a Man who as far
    as we know, stood

    to the end for what he believed in.

    After four years with Lavabit, can't bring myself to use Gmail or
    Hotmail or any other of

    the glitzy glamorous mail services who would no doubt roll over at
    the drop of a hat so

    I'm the proud user number one of the new hyperboria.ca mail service.
    It isn't as nice as

    gmail and it isn't as secure as lavabit but it's run by people,
    myself included, who think

    that email is more than a tool to collect marketing information.
    Hyperboria.ca is only

    accessible to members of the Hyperboria network because I don't have
    the time nor the

    will to run a "real" mail server.

    If everybody does just one thing for the sake of privacy, use
    Thunderbird. You can use it

    with your normal email account and once you've tried it you'll never
    go back to typing

    passwords into a website. With Thunderbird you can not only have
    your email on your PC

    instead of "in the cloud" but you can also use the Enigmail PGP
    extension. PGP stands for

    "Pretty Good Privacy" and it allows you to send mail which nobody
    but the recipient can

    read. I use PGP to email my mom, not because we "have something to
    hide" but because a

    conversation between a mother and son is not a national security
    matter and it certainly

    isn't "marketing intelligence". We are people, we are worth more
    than that and you are too.

    If you're not technically inclined then ask a friend or family
    member, if they're not familiar

    with Thunderbird and PGP then it's high time they learned!

    Thanks,

    Caleb

    tl;dr new email is 

cjd@???