Saturday, May 13, 2006

I'm no lawyer, but...

Inspired by a recent article in the L.A. Times, here's the relevant text of the ECPA-amended US Code Title 18:
Section 2702. Voluntary disclosure of customer communications or records

(a) Prohibitions. - Except as provided in subsection (b) -
(1) a person or entity providing an electronic communication
service to the public shall not knowingly divulge to any person
or entity the contents of a communication while in electronic
storage by that service; and
(2) a person or entity providing remote computing service to
the public shall not knowingly divulge to any person or entity
the contents of any communication which is carried or maintained
on that service -
(A) on behalf of, and received by means of electronic
transmission from (or created by means of computer processing
of communications received by means of electronic transmission
from), a subscriber or customer of such service;
(B) solely for the purpose of providing storage or computer
processing services to such subscriber or customer, if the
provider is not authorized to access the contents of any such
communications for purposes of providing any services other
than storage or computer processing; and
(3) a provider of remote computing service or electronic
communication service to the public shall not knowingly divulge a
record or other information pertaining to a subscriber to or
customer of such service (not including the contents of
communications covered by paragraph (1) or (2)) to any
governmental entity.
(b) Exceptions for disclosure of communications. - A provider
described in subsection (a) may divulge the contents of a
communication -
(1) to an addressee or intended recipient of such communication
or an agent of such addressee or intended recipient;
(2) as otherwise authorized in section 2517, 2511(2)(a), or
2703 of this title;
(3) with the lawful consent of the originator or an addressee
or intended recipient of such communication, or the subscriber in
the case of remote computing service;
(4) to a person employed or authorized or whose facilities are
used to forward such communication to its destination;
(5) as may be necessarily incident to the rendition of the
service or to the protection of the rights or property of the
provider of that service;
(6) to a law enforcement agency -
(A) if the contents -
(i) were inadvertently obtained by the service provider;
and
(ii) appear to pertain to the commission of a crime; or
(B) if required by section 227 of the Crime Control Act of
1990; or
(7) to a Federal, State, or local governmental entity, if the
provider, in good faith, believes that an emergency involving
danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires
disclosure without delay of communications relating to the
emergency.
(c) Exceptions for Disclosure of Customer Records. - A provider
described in subsection (a) may divulge a record or other
information pertaining to a subscriber to or customer of such
service (not including the contents of communications covered by
subsection (a)(1) or (a)(2)) -
(1) as otherwise authorized in section 2703;
(2) with the lawful consent of the customer or subscriber;
(3) as may be necessarily incident to the rendition of the
service or to the protection of the rights or property of the
provider of that service;
(4) to a governmental entity, if the provider reasonably
believes that an emergency involving immediate danger of death or
serious physical injury to any person justifies disclosure of the
information; or
(5) to any person other than a governmental entity.
I don't see anything in here that says "when the President decides to go on a terrorist hunt."

1 comment:

eric said...

I think the customer records are covered in section (c).