[IP] E-mail intercept ruling - good grief!!
Begin forwarded message:
From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <ross@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 30, 2004 10:12:36 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
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.html
It 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
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