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Something About the Kozinski Story You Didn't Read in the LA Times

By Pamela Jones et al.

First, this is off topic for Groklaw. I know. But I have some information about the Kozinski story that I'm not seeing reported. I provided it to the LA Times yesterday. Seeing it not reported there today, and factoring in that the email might have been caught in a spam catcher, I will provide it here myself.

There is some evidence I found on Internet Archive that indicates to me that the judge was apparently truthful in saying that the site in question was intended to be private, which I will show you for your consideration.

Second, I think it's important to highlight that the person who "tipped off" the LA Times reporter has been, I gather, in a kind of feud with Kozinski for some time. According to the ABA Journal, he has been monitoring the Kozinski site:

AP spoke to Beverly Hills, Calif., attorney Cyrus Sanai, who said he had told the Los Angeles Times about the images on the Kozinski website. He said he found them while monitoring the site as part of a dispute with the 9th Circuit in connection with his parents' divorce. He said he contacted reporters at various publications since January in an effort to expose them.

You can read about what they each, Kozinski and Sanai, wrote on a dispute between them here. It raises a question in my mind about whether or not this is just about the divorce. But my next question would be, if this was intended as a private site, would it be legal for an uninvited person to enter and monitor it? Exactly how would that work, given the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, not to mention any local California laws regarding privacy and computer integrity? We know there are such laws in California, from the HP-reporters scandal.

Full post as published by Groklaw on June 13, 2008 (boomark / email).