11th Circuit Eliminates 4th Amend. In E-mail 490
Artefacto writes "Last Thursday, the Eleventh Circuit handed down a Fourth Amendment case, Rehberg v. Paulk, that takes a very narrow view of how the Fourth Amendment applies to e-mail. The Eleventh Circuit held that constitutional protection in stored copies of e-mail held by third parties disappears as soon as any copy of the communication is delivered. Under this new decision, if the government wants get your e-mails, the Fourth Amendment lets the government go to your ISP, wait the seconds it normally takes for the e-mail to be delivered, and then run off copies of your messages."
What do you expect from ancient judges? (Score:5, Funny)
Half of the court probably had to have the concept of "email" explained to them. These were the annoying pricks that wore ties to class back in law school, most of whom were out of touch even back then. Now you expect a reasonable verdict that reflects modern innovations and changing behavior out of them?
"Email. Is that what my grandkids play their tic-tac-toe games on?"
"Uh, no Your Honor, that's probably a portable gaming console."
"Can I send a Tivo with one of those things?"
"No sir, a Tivo is a Digital Video Recorder."
"So an email is a Tivo?"
"Sir, I don't even know how to answer that."
"I'm ready to rule!"
Re:What do you expect from ancient judges? (Score:5, Funny)
Mod parent up for not reading the article, only taking into account one side of the argument when forming an opinion, and not understand how the U.S. government works.
Re:What do you expect from ancient judges? (Score:2, Funny)
I'm marking all my mail as unread, right now!
Re:Other Amendments (Score:3, Funny)
And if soldiers attempt to quarter themselves in your home, there's nothing you're going to be able to do to stop them.
Re:Hold on... (Score:3, Funny)
That was not too enlightening. However, my question is about this "after delivery" bit.
For server based mail (web based or even Outlook, etc.) the mail stays at the "ISP" even after it has been "delivered". However, if I pull a message from a POP server, with the delete option, the message should "legally" no longer be on the server after delivery, right?
Re:Other Amendments (Score:2, Funny)
I bet he's British.