Re: Legal Question about privacy

[Dan Bernard <djb29 () cwru edu>]

On Wed, Jul 23, 2003 at 11:12:04AM -0400, Mark Hahn wrote:
..
> Just to be perfectly clear about the subject of my post, it addresses
> the rights of others, not the hacker, who have conversations with
> the hacker. (The hacker himself, clearly a nefarious ne'er-do-well,
> has abrogated all rights to privacy by his own actions.)
..
In response to that, I'll stay close to my original supposition that
if the communications were not supposed to be secure, then they are
essentially open.  If said conversations with third parties took place
over a secured (encrypted) channel to another network, then I suppose
it would not be fair to deny the third parties their rights.  Otherwise,
I should think that the local wiretap laws still apply.  To draw a
parallel with the DirecTV case, I'd say that the customers' information
should not be disclosed if the original transactions were confidential.
There is certainly not enough information in any case to get DirecTV
involved.  I hope there's no misunderstanding now, at least of my views.


Regards,
Dan Bernard