Dear Listowners:
 
In reply to the enquiry about the electronic mail and privacy, that is
to say "Can email texts be used in a book?" I don't know whether this
case has ever been tested, but as a spectator at a conference I
learned that during Irangate the President could not protect his email
nor claim that it was private communications. I believe this judgment
was based upon the same principles as the cellular telephone: 1)
privacy was forfeited as you knew the risks incurred by sending
messages in this medium (email is as private as a postcard); and 2) the
message entered the public domain of broadcast frequencies and, as a
result, was no longer private property by your own volition. I suspect
that this judgment as well as the well known Prodigy case precludes
privacy or protection from prosecution based upon your email
transmissions. In the Prodigy case, the defendant was not able to
protect the texts which had been sent. I think that the same is
probably going to be true for the email published in the book. As US
law is based upon precedents as is British law, the extensive
arguments presented in the case of the President would probably serve
as a precedent to be cited with little difficulty in any system using
a British based law. There is one other scenario which I can
envisage which has not been resolved: if the texts were actually
obtained clandestinely, would they follow into the preceding
precedents. The problem with the last scenario is that if you are not
the addressee nor sender for the email texts, you might find that you
will have a little trouble explaining where and how you obtained them
which in some cases could lead to real problems depending upon the two
addresses appearing on the email. If you look at US government
enveloppes from its various agencies, you will see that such
consequences are implied for the use of the enveloppes for private
purposes by employees and for anyone tampering with the enveloppes. I
have a feeling that in some cases this same restriction is implied in
the use of the word, enveloppe, for email messages. Please, don't send
any flaming messages nor expect much further clarification as I was a
mere spectator at the events where the presidential case was presented
(the conference was about some other aspect of computing). I might be
able to provide a contact for that speaker with their permission. Thanks.
 
 
                        Best regards,
 
 
 
                        Paul di Virgilio.
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Dr. Paul S. di Virgilio,  University of Toronto  [log in to unmask]