Iria

In a closely watched case governing Internet privacy, a federal appeals court has reinstated a criminal case against an e-mail provider accused of violating wiretap laws.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 5-2 vote, ruled Thursday that an e-mail provider who allegedly read correspondence meant for his customers could be tried on federal criminal charges.

That decision reverses a 2-1 vote by a three-judge panel last year--which raised alarms among civil libertarians and even sparked a flurry of efforts in Congress to rewrite wiretapping law in response.

The case deals with an indictment against Bradford Councilman, formerly vice president of online bookseller Interloc--now part of Alibris.

Interloc provided some of its customers, typically dealers of rare or used books, with e-mail addresses ending in "@interloc.com." Councilman allegedly ordered the creation of a Procmail script, which saved copies of inbound messages from Amazon.com sent to those specialty book dealers, in hopes of gaining commercial intelligence. (Procmail is a popular Unix utility used for sorting and delivering incoming e-mail.)

"This is an important victory for online privacy," said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which submitted a brief in the case. "It establishes a high standard for the interception of Internet communications even when they're in temporary storage."
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Source: News.com