Southwark Crown Court has been hearing the case against one of the UK's internet pioneers, Cliff Stanford, this week. Mr Stanford, the founder of Demon Internet, was accused of a breach of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, or RIPA.
Together with co-defendant George Liddell, Stanford was alleged to have intercepted email communications at Redbus Interhouse plc in 2002 using software installed in Redbus' computer system which meant that any emails sent to John Porter, a former chairman of Redbus Interhouse, were copied to a separate email account.
Cliff Standford pleaded guilty to unlawful and unauthorised interception of electronic communications, an offence under section 1 of RIPA.
There have been relatively few published court cases on RIPA, which was an extremely controversial piece of legislation when first enacted. RIPA is written in language intended to catch a variety of types of modern communications, and as a result can be difficult to apply to particular uses of technology. Does the installation of software to send a duplicate of emails comprise an 'interception' of a communication for the purposes of RIPA? It may be relevant to Mr Stanford's case that interception of communications over a private telecommunication system does not give rise to a criminal offence where carried out by "a person with a right to control the operation or the use of the system".
The BBC reports that Mr Stanford is planning to appeal following an adverse interpretation of RIPA by the judge. If he does, we may get more clarity on what is permissible in this complex area of law.
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