Just like the parent said, while he kind of technically complied. But, again, it's more than obvious to everyone that it's not what was expected/demanded from him.
No, it really isn't. This is precisely why interactions between the law and technology are often quite confusing, because there's a mismatch between what the law says and the technological reality. It wasn't obvious what the law was demanding of him because such demands are rare and judges haven't figured out a boilerplate form of words to ask for the surrender of PGP keys or SSL certificates in particular file formats yet, and so they ask in general terms for 'encryption keys', leaving much open to interpretation. The existence of such ambiguities is why lawyers earn as much money as they do.
Levison wasn't 'fooling' the law at any point - he complied with the request as presented to him. The FBI wasn't happy with that response and went back to the judge for a more tightly-worded request, backed up by a threat of fines. At no point was the legal process subverted, 'hacked' or 'fooled'.
My point is that this is how the law works. If a judge wants you to do something then it is incumbent upon the judge to specify clearly what that is. You can't refuse without facing legal sanctions, but if the judge is vague or imprecise then you have at least some freedom to interpret the judge's instructions yourself. As I said earlier, corporate and government lawyers are experts in finding the most favourable interpretation of judicial rulings for their clients, and many legal cases revolve around reaching an interpretation of the law that is unambiguous enough to be enforceable.
Because it's related to Snowden. Again, it's quite obvious to everyone, that it's a hot issue and the government might go far to solve it.
Like it was said above, while I really support and respect Levison, it's not something you should be trying to fool - it's not a computer program...
What are you trying to say here? Sure, the government cares a lot about this case. But the judiciary and the government are not the same thing, and the law, as a matter of principle, is meant to apply equally in all cases. There are no special cases where the law should be applied differently because the case has the attention of senior government officials. You might say that I am being somewhat naive in that belief, but I think that most judges would agree that their role is as neutral arbiters of the law, not agents of the government of the day.
There is absolutely no sense in which it's possible to describe Levison's actions as incorrect. You can believe that he should have surrendered the keys in electronic format immediately, despite not being asked to do so, or you believe that he should have refused point blank to disclose them and thus disobey the judicial order, but those options are variously immoral or illegal, and the action of providing the printed copies of the keys was neither.
No, it really isn't. This is precisely why interactions between the law and technology are often quite confusing, because there's a mismatch between what the law says and the technological reality. It wasn't obvious what the law was demanding of him because such demands are rare and judges haven't figured out a boilerplate form of words to ask for the surrender of PGP keys or SSL certificates in particular file formats yet, and so they ask in general terms for 'encryption keys', leaving much open to interpretation. The existence of such ambiguities is why lawyers earn as much money as they do.
Levison wasn't 'fooling' the law at any point - he complied with the request as presented to him. The FBI wasn't happy with that response and went back to the judge for a more tightly-worded request, backed up by a threat of fines. At no point was the legal process subverted, 'hacked' or 'fooled'.
My point is that this is how the law works. If a judge wants you to do something then it is incumbent upon the judge to specify clearly what that is. You can't refuse without facing legal sanctions, but if the judge is vague or imprecise then you have at least some freedom to interpret the judge's instructions yourself. As I said earlier, corporate and government lawyers are experts in finding the most favourable interpretation of judicial rulings for their clients, and many legal cases revolve around reaching an interpretation of the law that is unambiguous enough to be enforceable.
Because it's related to Snowden. Again, it's quite obvious to everyone, that it's a hot issue and the government might go far to solve it.
Like it was said above, while I really support and respect Levison, it's not something you should be trying to fool - it's not a computer program...
What are you trying to say here? Sure, the government cares a lot about this case. But the judiciary and the government are not the same thing, and the law, as a matter of principle, is meant to apply equally in all cases. There are no special cases where the law should be applied differently because the case has the attention of senior government officials. You might say that I am being somewhat naive in that belief, but I think that most judges would agree that their role is as neutral arbiters of the law, not agents of the government of the day.
There is absolutely no sense in which it's possible to describe Levison's actions as incorrect. You can believe that he should have surrendered the keys in electronic format immediately, despite not being asked to do so, or you believe that he should have refused point blank to disclose them and thus disobey the judicial order, but those options are variously immoral or illegal, and the action of providing the printed copies of the keys was neither.