Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

Re: E-mail reading

Virginia has some new laws in the area of

computer privacy and computer theft, and these

are untested in many respects, so no one will

know exactly how they will be treated.

I don't know exactly, and I tend to think that

this might not be covered under the law (unless

you steal something of value that way).

However, because there is increasing regulation

in this area, and the government is getting very

serious about it, I think it would be very

risky. In your hypothetical case, it is clear

that the person DID NOT give the computer owner

their password intentionally. THerefore, I

think a good case could be made that it would be

"stealing" the password and using computer

services without authorization.

However, I don't know exactly if the law would

cover a case where a person borrows YOUR

computer and uses YOUR computer.