It would be interesting to see what their pen/trap device costs to install, I would guess far greater than $3500 if I know anything about government spending.
The difference is that Verizon already had this code built, and charged $700/request to use it. The Lavabit founder was asking for money to develop and modify his code. Even if it was his code, there is no "standard" amount for this service, so the government balking about it seems a bit disingenuous. It seems like they were annoyed they got push back to begin with, then did a heavy handed overeach to get the ssl keys because they knew the judge was friendly to their point of view.
He may have done if they agreed, but then again, maybe not. A lot of his responses seem like stalls in order to decided what to do.
In my reading, I get the same feeling of being disingenuous. The 4pt SSL key emphasizes that.
My best interpretation is that he had already decided that the only solution was to shut the company down - which I'm certain the government wasn't expecting - and given that he was likely to fail was using delay tactics.
However, my interpretation fails because he said he would do the tap if the government paid him enough money. (OTOH, he could have decided to shut it down in that case as well.)
