New York Court Scores Over Oregon In Recent Email Privacy Opinions: Via EFF.org Updates.

Last week, two new district court opinions took opposing views on the question of whether the Fourth Amendment protects stored email. One of the cases easily adopted the prevailing view that the Constitution protects electronic communications, while the other ignored existing U.S. Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit precedent to find consumers have no expectation of privacy in messages stored with third parties. EFF will be watching these developments closely as we continue to press for email privacy rights in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in U.S. v. Warshak and in other matters.

Email -- like letters, telephone calls or documents you keep in a rented locker -- should be fully protected by the Fourth Amendment. As with letters, calls or rented property, your expectation of privacy against the government does not weaken simply because you entrust the document to a third party for delivery or storage. [ Read more ... ]

Judge Orders RIAA to Pay Legal Fees to Falsely Accused Lawsuit Target -- the Second Such Ruling - Via Threat Level:

A litigation target of the Recording industry Association of America has been awarded attorney's fees after the music business falsely sued an Oregon woman for copyright infringement.

It is the second time a federal judge has awarded defense expenses to an RIAA target who was falsely accused.

In the Oregon case, U.S. District Judge James Redden ruled Tuesday that 42-year-old Tanya Andersen should be compensated for the costs of her legal defense. The court did not specify how much to award Andersen, but her lawyers have suggested it was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. [ Read more ... ]

Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities - Townhall.com::The News::News Article: Researchers have figured out how to give an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city's sewer plant.

The test wouldn't be used to finger any single person as a drug user. But it would help federal law enforcement and other agencies track the spread of dangerous drugs, like methamphetamines, across the country.

Oregon State University scientists tested 10 unnamed American cities for remnants of drugs, both legal and illegal, from wastewater streams. They were able to show that they could get a good snapshot of what people are taking. [ Read more ... ]

RIAA Going After a 10-Year-Old Girl: "NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "TThe latest target of the RIAA's ire is a 10-year-old girl in Oregon, who was 7 when the alleged infringement occurred, and whose disabled mother lives on Social Security. [ Read more ... ]