 Issue between Microsoft Corporation and U.S. Government continues. Issue awaiting settlement in the Court, is about a warrant letter sent against Microsoft for a customer email data held in one of Microsoft Data centers On the 9th of September, Last Wednesaday, Microsoft Corp asked a U.S. federal appeals court to block the U.S. government from forcing the company to hand over a customer's emails stored on an Irish server. U.S. Government claims that the client who has not been identified involved in a drug dealing event. Joshua Rosenkranz, a lawyer who acts on behalf of Microsoft, warned the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that upholding the warrant would open the door to other countries using their law enforcement powers to seize the emails of Americans held in the United States. Rosenkranz said "We would go crazy if China did this to us". But according to Justin Anderson, a lawyer for the government, U.S. law enforcement can obtain electronic information held by American companies with a valid warrant, regardless of where the data happens to be stored. He said "It's not a question of ownership," "It's about custody and control." Nearly 100 organizations and individuals supports Microsoft's position, including tech giants like Apple Inc, Verizon Communications Inc and Cisco Systems Inc and media companies like McClatchy Co and Gannett Co Inc. Rosenkranz said the law the US Government bases itself on belongs to "a pre-CompuServe, pre-AOL world". Rosenkranz urges the court to leave it to Congress to close what he said was a gap in the law. Although Circuit Judge Gerald Lynch agreed that legislative action would be best but noted wryly that Congress does not always act quickly. "We'll all be holding our breath," he said with a smile. Reuters reports >> |