eDiscovery Case Law: U.S. Court Rules on ECPA Protection of Emails in the Cloud

http://ow.ly/6Xhsi

An article by Doug Austin on the eDiscovery Daily Blog.

This article touches on a recent case that looked at the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and determined how it fits with "cloud" computing.

The article states, "In Suzlon Energy Ltd v. Microsoft Corporation, the court determined that holders of online accounts whose servers are located in the U.S., regardless of their location or nationality, are protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, commonly known as the "ECPA." The ECPA ensures that the disclosure of emails by electronic communication service providers is limited and restricted to specific circumstances."  A link to the case decision is provided in the blog post on eDiscovery Daily.

Since emails that are not owned by a U.S. citizen and are not subject to a suit in the U.S., were held to be protected by the ECPA, what impact will this have?  As the article states, "Despite the plaintiff's and defendant's Indian nationality, and the fact that the suit in question was Australian, the U.S. court ruled in a manner that creates a powerful precedent for future lawsuits related to electronic communication providers whose servers are located in the U.S. As a result of this case, it has become clear that any users with accounts in U.S.-held cloud services will be subject to the same protections under the ECPA as a U.S. citizen."

The author asks, "Does this ruling offer fair and sensible protect to U.S.-based companies and the users of their cloud services, or does it unnecessarily complicate the field of international eDiscovery?"

P.S. What are your thoughts?  Should the ECPA provide protections for cases that only have servers located in the U.S?  Consider the opposite situation, should the U.S. be able to enforce Federal Civil Procedure rules against emails that are located in servers that are not within the U.S. (this seems to be how U.S. courts handle things presently)?