"There is nothing stopping Google, Facebook or Microsoft to act as Lavabit did. Nothing at all except for their own cowardice, malicious intents and disregard for laws and their customers."
Emphasis re-arranged by me. May I remind you that Lavabit was shut down in reaction to actions taken by law enforcement, doing something that is almost certainly actually legal? "Regard for the law" here would seem to entail doing what they want. You appear to be simultaneously criticizing public companies for disregarding the law and not disregarding the law.
(I object to its legality, but that does not change its legality.)
The Supreme Law of the Land is the Constitution, right?
The Fourth Amendment has a few things to say on this. I'd strongly advise you to actually read it -- it's only a few sentences -- and make your own determination on what you think it actually says.
The FISC, authorized under the FISA, goes back to the 70's and was in reaction to the crimes that Nixon committed. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Obama has taken that ball and run with it in a big way. Most transparent administration, ha.
And even then, the FISC was and is itself contradictory to the Bill of Rights, 14th Amendment, etc,....
Guess which law wins? Assuming the Supreme Court agrees (and there's no guarantee they would.)
So if you're ordered to do something awful, but you know that there is a higher law that trumps that law, you can simultaneously be disregarding "the law" whilst maintaining "regard" for the law.
Emphasis re-arranged by me. May I remind you that Lavabit was shut down in reaction to actions taken by law enforcement, doing something that is almost certainly actually legal? "Regard for the law" here would seem to entail doing what they want. You appear to be simultaneously criticizing public companies for disregarding the law and not disregarding the law.
(I object to its legality, but that does not change its legality.)