Law question

[zorro]

Are emails admissible in court as evidence ? what about newsgroup postings ?


Preeeciate ya.

[Muncher]

There's nothing to say they can't be, but it'd be a case of proving the post was made by who you think it was.

The publishers of the content (host) are responsible for whatever they publish, so should remove it if you ask.

[zorro]

Say someone sent me an email with a question amd I replied, could this be brought up at trial ?


I recently saw on the news that phone tap evidence as well as emails were now going to be allowed in court whereas previously they were not.

[OUTLAWisBACK]

Guess that means no more tretening email to brake then

[Muncher]

zorro said:

Say someone sent me an email with a question amd I replied, could this be brought up at trial ? I recently saw on the news that phone tap evidence as well as emails were now going to be allowed in court whereas previously they were not.

Yes, if they could prove you sent it, is a bit of a gray area really.

[LuS1fer]

It's not a grey area. It's just a question of proving a chain of continuity. Texts sent by mobile phone get used in Court every day in cases of Harrassment as they can be traced to a specific mobile phone. The same would apply to a computer and the technology to trace this sort of communication will become more widely available as the Police develop more sophisticated detection techniques to crack down on more serious computer crime like child pornography.

It is still necessary to prove that a particular Defendant sent a specific e-mail but that can be done through a reasonable inference and circumstantial evidence based on the content of the e-mail, whether the person alleged to have sent it had the motive and things like whether a password is required to operate the computer in question. In other words, the sender can be inferred by eliminating anyone else likely to have sent it.