Microsoft: The future of cloud computing rests on some emails stored in Ireland

April 9, 2015 Off By David
Object Storage

Grazed from BusinessInsider. Author: Julie Bort.

In a case that first began in December 2013, Microsoft is still refusing the government’s demands to hand over emails of one of its users. The government wants the emails as part of a drug trafficking investigation. The problem is the emails are stored on a server in Ireland and Microsoft says that the US government doesn’t have the jurisdiction to demand them, at least not from Microsoft.

Last summer, Microsoft lost its appeal on the matter. On late Wednesday evening, Microsoft filed a legal brief reply on the matter, once again arguing that it should not be compelled to turn over emails stored in a foreign country, Microsoft’s head lawyer, Brad Smith explained in a new blog post…

The gist of Microsoft’s argument is: A warrant served on an internet service provider should only be able to cover things in the cloud world that would be covered in the physical world, namely materials inside US borders, and a subpoena should be issued to the target of the investigation, not the ISP, Microsoft argues. If the government wants emails located outside the country, it should comply with mutual legal assistance treaties (MLAT) with those other countries. In this case, Irish law requires authorization from an Irish district court judge to obtain e-mail content from a provider, the Washington Post reports…

Read more from the source @ http://www.businessinsider.in/Microsoft-The-future-of-cloud-computing-rests-on-some-emails-stored-in-Ireland/articleshow/46868658.cms