E-Mail Hacking Case Could Redefine Online Privacy

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/05/AR2008080503
421.html?hpid=topnews

A federal appeals court in California is reviewing a lower court's
definition of "interception" in the digital age, in a case that some legal
experts say could weaken consumer privacy protections online. 

The case, Bunnell v. Motion Picture Association of America, involves a
hacker who in 2005 broke into a file-sharing company's server and obtained
copies of company e-mails as they were being transmitted. He then e-mailed
34 pages of the documents to an MPAA executive, who paid the hacker $15,000
for the job, according to court documents. 

The issue boils down to the judicial definition of an intercept in the
electronic age, in which packets of data move from server to server,
alighting for milliseconds before speeding onward. The ruling applies only
to the 9th District, which includes California and other Western states, but
could influence other courts around the country. 

In August 2007, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, in the Central District of
California, ruled that the alleged hacker, Rob Anderson, had not intercepted
the e-mails in violation of the 1968 Wiretap Act because they were
technically in storage, if only for a few instants, instead of in
transmission. 

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