Personally from a US legal and techie stand point, it 
is a gray area I must admit, but I would lean towards
the doctor/patient privacy area overall if this were
to hit the US courts.  

Situation case:
(an interesting one that I bring up with my students)
You are using your email account at work.  The company
owns the email server, manages it, etc., etc.  Does the
company have the right to view/read/trace your individual
emails?

Answer:
Yes.

Reason:
Company owns the equipment and software licenses (if any
are involved).  Company is technically liable for any information
that is transmitted from its servers, including emails.

Relationship to this situation though...company has bought the 
licenses and software for individual use.  An similar example here 
is you just bought a new car.  Does the dealer ship have the right
to go in and take a look at your car for whatever reasons?
Most people would call that breaking and entering in the US. ;-)

Ah, the joy of ethics sometimes.

--- Crawford


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pat Evans [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2002 10:52 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Food for thought
> 
> 
>  I saw it as well.
> 
>  Would love to see a Lawyers interpretation of this.
> 
>  THe most important peice of  the discussion I think is not about the 
> technical peice but the actual EULA itself which give MS permision to 
> access the pc/server.
> 
>  Alric
> 
> 

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