Apparently FISA courts can order the installation of runtime surveillance software.

Surveillance doesn’t work like the part of crime investigation where the investigators can get a search warrant from a Court (which in this case would be to get some logs, which as you pointed out don’t actually exist), it works like wiretapping where the court orders are to install said wiretapping equipment and it then just stays there tracking everything that happens.

What that “no-logs” stuff does from the point of view of users, as I explained in another post, is to stop things like rights owners being able to track who was pirating their copyrighted works from an IP address and timestamp as that would require access to logs which don’t exist, not stop state surveillance by countries which have surveillance courts that can secretly order companies in their jurisdiction to install surveillance software in their systems.

Mind you, normal courts can also order them to install wiretapping software, but they’re not going to do it for non-commercial copyright violations, plus the Laws that apply don’t allow dragnet surveillance (it’s only the “special” shit that came out after 9/11 like the Patriot act that created such special courts and allow them to secretly order the installation of systems and software for mass surveillance)

So, yeah, if all you care about is pirating without getting letters from lawyers demanding money from you, then any no-logs VPN is probably fine. If you want to avoid state surveillance, then you want to avoid VPNs based in countries with surveillance courts and legislation as well as VPN exit points in such countries, and that means at least the US, UK and Israel.