Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!NSCULTRIX1.NETWORK.COM!dotytr From: dotytr@NSCULTRIX1.NETWORK.COM (Ted R. Doty) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: (none) Message-ID: <9102181541.AA06605@nscultrix1.network.com> Date: 18 Feb 91 15:41:52 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 38 Erik Naggum raises a host of interesting points in his comparison of email to the postal service's registered/certified mail. I tend to support his conclusion that "registered" email will be a long time comming, but for social, rather than technical reasons. While I'm not a lawyer, my understanding of the legal status of email is that it does not have any of the protections accorded to paper (Post Office) mail. While it is a crime for the post office to tamper with your letters, there appears to be nothing preventing any mail relay from reading/modifying/deleting your mail at will. A recent case against Epson America, where an employee was fired (and frogmarched out of the building by the police, no less!) for objecting to Epson's policy of reading employee's email, was dismissed because it Epson has not violated either the Electronic Communications Privacy Act or California wiretaping statutes. The judge ruled flat out that wiretaping does not apply to email. (Note that a similar suit has been files against Nissan USA). So what does this mean (rather than don't buy Epson or Nissan products)? Email appears to have absolutely no legal protections, or any standing in a court of law (don't tell me about Ollie North - that was no court, that was the congress). I would suggest that email providers will not venture into this field until the LEGAL status of email is established. Imagine the liability of (for example) MCI if they offer a "Certified" email that can be manhandled by any system administrator on the net ... This may be a case of a solvable (eventually) *technical* problem but an insoluable social one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ted Doty, Network Systems Corporation | phone: +1 301 596-2270 8965 Guilford Rd./Suite 250 | fax: +1 301 381-3320 Columbia, MD 21046 USA | voice mail: (800) 233-1485 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "These views are my own, and do not necessarially represent those of Network Systems Corporation" "The first thing we do, it to kill all the lawyers." -Wm. Shakespeare