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. -- Dr. Paul S. di Virgilio, University of Toronto [log in to unmask]