On Thu, 30 Sep 1993, Mike Godwin wrote:
Bill writes:
Heh. OK. Well, if one behaves "ethically", then I guess *that* closes the issue. It's his machine and he gets to make the rules. (this is my personally-adhered-to point of view)
My question is this: how does he know that the mail is encrypted if he's not examining the mail that passes through his system? If he *is* examining the mail that passes through his system, it seems likely that he is violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
Only if he has stated that he allows private mail. Most sysops have specifically worded policy statements for their systems that say that the sysop can read any and all messages on the system and may do so at any time. Bulletin boards do not normally offer truely private mail because of some of the legal implications.