Libraries and the federal government are on the same side in this privacy case. A rare book company snooped through customer email accounts to see when customers were contacting Amazon. The First Circuit ruled that this did not violate the Wiretap Act because the emails were stored, ignoring the instantaneous nature of email. This is a bad decision that must be rectified by legislation (see EPIC Alert Aug. 4, 2004 #5) or court appeal.
The American Library Association, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and other groups filed an amicus brief supporting the U.S. government on Sept. 2 for rehearing of the Councilman case.
Brief is by Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy, September 3, 2004 at 11:29am
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