[Republican Red]

Many links in the body of the story plus more links to releated articles - for those interested.

[tutstar]

If I "tell" my neighbor they can read my postal mail, does that make it legal??

[tutstar]

ping a ling...

[go-dubya-04]

Please,Jim, we're begging you to go after these guys!

[Right_in_Virginia]

Bump for later read.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Bump for later read.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Very interesting post.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Are you just stupid? Laws don't apply to liberals! </disgusted sarcasm>

[Mojave]

A Congressional hearing would be interesting.

[Fruit of the Spirit]

"Did the Washington Post Violate the Electronic Communications Privacy Act?"

"Possibly" is the Post most favorite response. The Post, like Mapes, wants eveyone else to prove them wrong. I'm thinking the grand jury investigation, if it's legitimate, will find lots of things to blast the Post with.

[cricket]

Bump for the truth here and soon. . .and thanks for updating what is going on here. . .

This is an incredible story; and a posturing media is becoming SOP. . .

That said; it will probably rise to 'gate' level; only with their help. MSM may not be as forthcoming as we would expect. . .to say the least.

[Mrs Zip]

ping

[Katya]

I think Mosk knows all these guys intimately. There was no "third" party...

[Sandy]

This sounds like a stretch if you ask me.

Here's the relevant provision:

[W]hoever
(1) intentionally accesses without authorization a facility through which an electronic communication service is provided; or
(2) intentionally exceeds an authorization to access that facility;

and thereby obtains...access to a wire or electronic communication while it is in electronic storage in such system shall be punished as provided in subsection (b) of this section.

Definitions:

Electronic Communication means any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photooptical system that affects interstate or foreign commerce

Electronic Communication Service means any service which provides to users thereof the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications

Electronic storage means—
(A) any temporary, intermediate storage of a wire or electronic communication incidental to the electronic transmission thereof; and
(B) any storage of such communication by an electronic communication service for purposes of backup protection of such communication;

-------------------------------

Now, maybe Free Republic can be considered an "electronic communication service" and FR's database/server/whatever can be considered a "facility through which an electronic communication service is provided", but I don't see how Freepmail qualifies as being in "electronic storage" (as defined above).

[HiTech RedNeck]

He then used that screen name and password to log into MD4Bush's account and view private e-mails sent between MD4Bush and former Maryland state official Joseph Steffen.

Whoah...??? Is Steffen a freeper too? I wasn't aware that Free Republic provided a way of using freepmail to contact external email addresses. (Cool feature if so)

Also, does FR log invalid attempts at login? Would seem to me that MD4Bush got hacked into.

[kevkrom]

Hmmmm... the WaPo accessed and reprinted information from this site without authorization. I don't know about the first part of that, but I think there's sufficent precedent for a civil suit on part 2.

[Eva]

I've been wondering if the WA Post was part of the law suit against FreeRepublic. If they were, they deserve to get sued.

[Gondring]

bttt

[Buffettfan]

The OSM (oldstream media) is being dismanted......one brick at a time just like the Berlin wall.

[marty60]

Ah yes....REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD.