At Lawmeme, James Grimmelman discusses how Abusive E-Mail Subpoenas Are Actionable Under Federal Law
There’s legal hardball, and then there’s legal lunacy, and Alvin Farey-Jones just got an expensive lesson in the difference. In the course of a lawsuit against a company named ICA, he sent a subpoena to ICA’s ISP, asking for all of ICA’s email. The ISP complied.
The Ninth Circuit has just ruled that Farey-Jones’s actions could constitute a violation of both the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which prohibitions “unauthorized access” to computer systems, and the Stored Communications Act, which does the same for electronic communications.
