>FYI.... > >Also, out of curiousity, can anyone confirm/deny any of the statements >passed on in the message below, especially as it relates to LISTSERV list >archives? As always, consulting a lawyer is your best bet. I am not a lawyer, and my comments should be read with that in mind. >One of the interesting things I learned at the AUUG meeting (attended >by the entire four-person FBI computer crime investigation team from >Atlanta) is that it is a federal crime to read email. > >Email is private to the recipient and it requires a subpoena from a >grand jury (or judge I believe) to look at it. [. . .] This rule of thumb is not absolute. As noted, any recipient can read the message, and I think that if it's sent to a public forum it's fair game for anyone. [If so this takes care of the archive question.] The sender of the message can also reveal it to whomever he or she wants. A sysadmin is allowed to read email if it is necessary for troubleshooting or keeping the system up and working. However, he or she is not allowed to tell anyone of the email he or she has read (unless the sysadmin was one of the normal recipients of the letter anyways, or was the person who sent it). Those are the main exceptions I remember. There may be others, and of course my recollection or interpretation of what I read may be flawed. -jwgh