With admirable clarity and brevity, Princeton's Ed Felten explains why Lavabit's owner was right to design his email service to be resistant to court orders. The whole piece is good and important, but here's the takeaway: "At Lavabit, an employee, on receiving a court order, copies user data and gives it to an outside party—in this case, the government. — Read the rest

Popehat's Ken White (a former federal prosecutor) uses the arrest of alleged Silk Road founder Ross "Dread Pirate Roberts" Ulbricht to explain how the criminal justice system works, including the difference between a grand jury indictment and a criminal charge, and how to understand sentencing guidelines and "maximum possible sentences." — Read the rest

Internet security expert Bruce Schneier writes about Lavabit founder Ladar Levison's "extreme moral act in the face of government pressure," in closing the security-focused email service rather than complying with a US government order to share user data. "It's what happened next that is the most chilling. — Read the rest

Groklaw, an award-winning campaigning website that played a pivotal role in the SCO case (a proxy war in which Microsoft tried to kill GNU/Linux) and others, is shutting down, over the revelation of widespread, deep email surveillance. In an open letter, Pamela Jones, the site's owner, cites the open letter posted by Lavabit founder Ladar Levison when he shut down rather than cooperating in surveillance of his users. — Read the rest

Some of the most recent video selections you can find on our video archive page:

• Kinetic sand – cool weird material to play with

• Have you tried turning it off and on again?

• Interview with Lavabit's founder Ladar Levison

• CDZA music experiment: Your Best Morning Ever

• Super Mario rock opera! — Read the rest