[IP] E-mail intercept ruling - good grief!!

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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.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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