[kictanet] Man Faces Five Years in Prison for Snooping Through Wife's E-Mails

[Odhiambo Washington]

Suppose, in the process of this impropriety, Mr. Walker ended up discovering
impropriety on the part of the wife as far as their marriage is concerned,
there is likelihood of a divorce case being upheld, based on proof from the
e-mails. I wonder if in such a case the "government" will still shy off
looking at the evidence just because it was dug under circumstances that it
considers felonious.
I think this is a case of the govt meddling in a marriage. However, this is
the US where marriages are a strange contract, short term in most cases so
it doesn't come out as a surprise to me that the govt looks at marriage this
way, for the govt is the people, representing the people.

Happy 2011.


On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 11:38 PM, Alice Munyua <alice at apc.org> wrote:

>  Happy 2011 to everyone.
>
> --------------------
>
> Here's an  interesting case that could end up setting new  boundaries in
> the area of privacy. And it confirms that in most cases marriages do belong
> to the government :-)
>
> best
>
>
> Alice
>
>
> Man Faces Five Years in Prison for Snooping Through Wife's E-Mails
>
> http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/email-snooping-wife-brings-michigan-man-felony-computer/story?id=12488956
>
>   Could someone face prison time for snooping through a spouse's e-mails?<http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-infidelity-cheating-spouses-online/story?id=12272421>For Leon Walker of Michigan, the answer was yes.
>
>
>  Suspecting that his wife was involved with another man, and worried that
> it was affecting their daughter, Walker logged into Clara Walker's Gmail
> account last summer.
>
> Walker, 33, said it was easy for him to log in because his wife kept the
> password in a book next to the computer.
>
> "I definitely felt it was OK to confirm [the affair] by reading her e-mail
> in our home," said Walker.
>
> While Walker believed it was OK, Oakland County prosecutors did not and
> have charged Walker with felony misuse of a computer. If convicted, he could
> face up to five years in prison.
>
> This is Michigan's first criminal prosecution for snooping through a
> spouse's e-mails. So far, two Michigan judges have refused to toss out the
> charges in the potentially precedent-setting case.
>
> "It's outrageous. It's insane," Walker, who is now divorced, told ABC News.
>
>
> Prosecutors contend that Walker -- who is a computer technician --
> illegally hacked into his wife's computer after she had filed for divorce,
> but Walker's lawyer calls the prosecution's claim an overzealous application
> of a law meant to protect trade secrets and credit card data.
>
> "People who live under the same roof, be they married or not, and who share
> a computer -- as in this instance -- they may have some personal privacy
> lines that they adhere to. And if they don't, that's between the two
> individuals," defense attorney Leon Weiss said.
>
> "The word 'e-mail' does not appear in this statute. This is an anti-hacking
> statute," Weiss said. "It does not, in any way, shape or form encompass
> reading somebody's e-mail."
>
> Prosecutors scoff at defense claims that Walker is a victim.
>
> "Apparently, they are trying the case in the media, because they are not
> doing so well in the courts," Oakland County prosecutor Jessica Cooper said
> in a statement.
>
> While Walker's case is a first for Michigan, it is not the first time the
> privacy between a husband and wife has become a matter for the courts.
> Federal privacy laws state that even with a shared computer, password
> protected e-mail accounts are private, unless one of the parties allows
> access.
>
> "The law is a simple unauthorized access law: It prohibits unauthorized
> viewing of someone else's password-protected files," said Orin Kerr, an
> Internet legal expert. "The legal issue here would be whether the wife gave
> the man permission to view her account. If she did not, this is a pretty
> straightforward."
>
> And experts say the same law would apply to other forms of communication,
> including a letter addressed to your spouse.
>
> "If you give them permission, you can do anything you want to. But if you
> don't, it might be a crime," said Perry Aftab, a privacy lawyer.
>
> Walker will face trial Feb. 7 in a case that could set bold new boundaries
> in the murky area of privacy between a husband and a wife.
>
>
>  <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-infidelity-cheating-spouses-online/story?id=12272421>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>
> This message was sent to: odhiambo at gmail.com
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/odhiambo%40gmail.com
>
>


-- 
Best regards,
Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254733744121/+254722743223
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Damn!!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20110104/20b8496b/attachment.htm>