Courts allow ISPs to read your email

An Internet bookseller, which also operated an Internet service provider (ISP), has been sentenced in federal court for intercepting electronic communications and the unauthorized possession of password files.

The case against Emeryville, Calif.-based Alibris, which is thought to be the first of its type, involved one company intercepting e-mail from Amazon.com and others to book dealers without the authorization of the dealers concerned.

Donald Stern, the US Attorney, said that the firm had pleaded guilty before US District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor to criminal information charges, as well as 10 counts of unlawful interception of e-mail and one count of unauthorized possession of passwords with intent to defraud.

Stern said that Judge Ponsor accepted the terms of the plea agreement entered into by the firm and the government, sentencing Alibris to a fine of $250,000.

In court, Assistant US Attorney Jeanne Kempthorne said Interloc, Alibris' corporate predecessor, was an online bookseller, specializing in rare and out-of-print books. Kempthorne said that Interloc also operated a business called Valinet, which provided Internet services in the Greenfield, Mass. area. In addition, Interloc provided e-mail service to its customer book dealers.

The prosecution alleged that Alibris/Interloc intercepted e-mail from Amazon.com to Alibris/Interloc's bookseller clients who used the Interloc e-mail service between January 1998 and June 1998. The interceptions are alleged to have taken place at the instruction of a senior executive at Interloc, who apparently instructed the systems administrator to write code for the program that processed Interloc's e-mail delivery "so that it would copy and/or filter incoming mail which contained Amazon.com, Bibliofind.com, or Advanced Book Exchange in the `From:' field of any e-mail correspondence to Interloc's book dealer customers."

All of these businesses were competitors of Interloc's bookselling business, the prosecution said.