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E-mail intercept ruling - good grief!!
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 05:20:29 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <ross () stapleton-gray com> Date: June 30, 2004 10:12:36 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: E-mail intercept ruling - good grief!!1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just handed down a (split 2/1) decision, that an ISP's interception of customer e-mails which it then mined for competitive purposes (the ISP was involved in used book sales; this was customer e-mail to/from Amazon.com) did not violate the Wiretap Act:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/040630/intercepted_e_mail_4.htmlIt looks like the crux of the ruling was that, since the e-mail was examined "at rest" (e.g., as it sat queued for transmittal) and not "in motion" (i.e., read off the wire as it transitted), the Wiretap Act did not apply.
I've got to wonder about the implications of this. Unless it's governed by other protections, I could see a field day for intercepts (by the government, and others); presumably the government itself would be at risk, as its agencies' e-mails transit commercial ISPs.
Ross ----- Ross Stapleton-Gray, Ph.D., CISSP Stapleton-Gray & Associates, Inc. http://www.stapleton-gray.com ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- E-mail intercept ruling - good grief!! David Farber (Jul 01)