Because constitutional protection and human rights are greater causes than the few bucks you lost. Lavabit didn't have to shut down, they could have handed over your private emails, but they didn't. I'd say they've more than earned what you paid.
There's no part of "constitutional protection and human rights" that forbade them from refunding customers' money for a service the customers paid for that they then stopped offering.
(NB: I have no idea if they did/did not refund any money; I'm taking it as a given for this comment but I'm completely relying on the comment chain for the unverified story.)
In lieu of what's going on, I think anyone expecting their money back should re-examine priorities. Clearly Lavabit needs the money for a cause that, frankly, trumps anyone's concerns about getting their money back. I completely support them taking any cash that's available, risking the anger of the people who would dare to be upset about it.
In short, I think making the OP upset is a negligible problem compared to the USgov to getting their way.
Saying that handing over money to them somehow = human rights isn't much better than the people who say that PRISM = protection. Just because LavaBit's shtick and rallying cry is around freedom doesn't mean that they aren't a crap company or that they are telling the whole truth about what has gone down. For all we know the founder is just some wacky libertarian taking an opportunity to give the gov some bad press.
> Saying that handing over money to them somehow = human rights isn't much better than the people who say that PRISM = protection.
I think it's MUCH MUCH BETTER.
> For all we know the founder is just some wacky libertarian taking an opportunity to give the gov some bad press.
Needless FUD. For all I know you're an alien from outer space, for all I know we're all in The Matrix, for all I know everyone here is an automation-script and HackerNews is an experiment in how long they can keep me, smtddr, believing that I'm talking with real humans. You can't live life in FUD. I think it's more likely that you're a NSA/USgov shill who just created this account to post this comment... than the Lavabit founders set up all this encryption to a point that even Snowden trusted them, just to turn around aand give the government some bad press. And seriously, "wacky libertarian"? Define that for me. And "just to give gov some bad press?" Why? What do libs have to gain by giving USgov a bad name just for the sake of it? The USgov has given itself a bad enough name just by the NSA leaks, they don't need any help from any "wacky libs".
Can you link me to any examples of customers who didn't get any refunds? I'm only finding overwhelming support for his shutdown from previous customers...
I did not receive a refund for my lavabit service that was interrupted, but after seeing the situation I really did not mind (I may not have received a prorated $3 of my $8 yearly subscription fee - I think there are much bigger issues at stake here). The lavabit shutdown is even more of a reason to give a privacy-respecting company support. Godspeed lavabit!
