Appeals court considers e-mail hacking

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A case before a U.S. appeals court could limit privacy expectations for on-line communications.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, sitting in California, ruled last year that a hacker who broke into a file-sharing company's e-mail didn't violate the 1968 Wiretap Act. Cooper ruled that the e-mail messages Rob Anderson obtained were being stored, although momentarily, and not in transmission.

Her decision in Bunnell vs. the Motion Picture Association of America is being reviewed by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, The Washington Post reports.

Anderson was paid $15,000 after he sent copies of Valence Media e-mail to an MPAA executive. He obtained the message by configuring the Valence Media server to forward copies of e-mail to his account.

The MPAA contends that it got the copies legally from someone who also got them legally. The company and privacy advocates say that the MPAA wanted the e-mail to give it an edge in a copyright infringement suit.