I hope that you'll cosponsor HR 4956, the E-mail Privacy Act of 2004.  As you
may be aware, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently
ruled in United States v. Councilman that email can be lawfully intercepted
after it leaves its sender and before it reaches its recipient.  Such
interceptions do not legally come under the definition of wiretapping, since
the email at the time it is intercepted is not being transmitted over wires or
radio waves but rather is being stored, albeit only for a period of
milliseconds, in computer memory or mass storage devices.  HR 4956 closes this
legal loophole and reinforces the spirit of the Fourth Amendment by making the
prohibition on third-party viewing of private email analogous to the
prohibition on third-party wiretapping of a private telephone call.  I hope
that this important privacy measure will have your vigorous support.