Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: internet/email laws

Email hacking is illegal, both in that you can be sued AND prosecuted criminally for it. Also, it's likely you'd get caught, because you would leave little digital trails including your "IP address." Some email services notify the account owner of the IP address and last time the email account was accessed. You'd be totally busted!

Re: internet/email laws

Suppose the question were asked in 19th-Century terms, such as "Is it legal to obtain someone's key without permission and enter his home to look around?"

The rephrasing of the question is intended to distract from the 21st-Century aspects and get us back to fundamentals.

The answer is then clear. "Usually not, unless there is a justification."

For example, if I were a 19th Century farmer accustomed to driving the buggy to church every Sunday, a neighbor who knew where I hid my spare key would not be justified in entering my home and rummaging around in my opened mail, looking for love letters from his wife or what I was paying for hay. This would perhaps even be burglary.

On the other hand, if I hadn't been seen for weeks, a neighbor might be justified in "finding" my spare key and coming in to see if I were sick and disabled (or dead).

Similarly, it is generally "not legal" to obtain someone's password without permission, and also "not legal" to read his e-mail.

Whether either of these transgressions is a civil or criminal offense, or not an offense at all but perfectly respectable, is a matter of circumstances, just as in the 19th Century example. It depends on the real-world conditions surrounding what happened. 95% of the time, you have illegality. There are plenty of new, broadly-phrased statutes in the Penal Code dealing with both issues. Also, some older laws and principles. In general, however, for an act to be illegal (civilly or criminally) there must be more than just doing the act; it must be done with an improper motive, intent or result.