Current Event: International Man of Privacy

Early in August I commented on the implications of a US district court’s judgement that Microsoft had to turn over e-mail from alleged UK nationals who’s e-mail stored in a data center in Ireland.

At the time of the judgement the judge stayed the ruling pending Microsoft’s appeal.  This appears to have been a procedural mistake.  Chief Judge Loretta Preska lifted her stay of the judgement allowing enforcement of the judgement to proceed as of August 29th.

Chief Judge Loretta Preska

My understanding of this is that as long as the execution of the judgement was stayed Microsoft wasn’t under legal inducement to comply and, therefore, was not compelled to appeal the judgement.  Once the Chief Judge lifted her stay Microsoft was required to either comply, appeal or be found in contempt.

The implications of the judgement on US claims regarding data stored, hosted, managed or otherwise in some form of possession of a corporation that is housed within the jurisdiction of a US federal court is not diminished.