Question for legal experts

Andrew1975

An individual is using an e-mail account to defame another person to future employers etc.

Does the person being defamed have any legal right to the IP address of the sender via the email provider (i.e. the company who provided the e-mail address) in order that the true identity of the defamer can be traced, and they themselves exposed?

KiKi

Andrew1975 wrote: »

An individual is using an e-mail account to defame another person to future employers etc.

Does the person being defamed have any legal right to the IP address of the sender via the email provider (i.e. the company who provided the e-mail address) in order that the true identity of the defamer can be traced, and they themselves exposed?

I'm almost certain the answer is no in terms of getting it yourself. The information would be protected by confidentiality. I think you'd have to get an authority (ie, police) to obtain it as part of due legal process once you had proved that this person was guilty of the things you say they are.

You may get more luck posting this on a legal board rather than an employment one, though.

KiKi

paddyrg

Who is providing the email service? Some (eg Yahoo, Hotmail) will reveal the originating IP in the headers, but others (GMail, Hushmail) will not.

http://www.iptrackeronline.com/header.php

This will have a go at telling you more from the email headers where available. You can interpret if the results make sense or not (hint, all GMail ones come from West Coast USA, or seem to).

IP addresses are not a direct 1:1 map to people - best you'll usually get is it'll tie back to an ISP or organisation, getting further than that requires a bit of technical know-how

Andrew1975

KiKi wrote: »

I'm almost certain the answer is no in terms of getting it yourself. The information would be protected by confidentiality. I think you'd have to get an authority (ie, police) to obtain it as part of due legal process once you had proved that this person was guilty of the things you say they are.

You may get more luck posting this on a legal board rather than an employment one, though.

KiKi

One point I missed out was the person doing the defamation is actually impersonating someone else.

Does the person being impersonated have greater legal rights to demand the full details of the e-mail in question, i.e. IP address?

Andrew1975

paddyrg wrote: »

Who is providing the email service? Some (eg Yahoo, Hotmail) will reveal the originating IP in the headers, but others (GMail, Hushmail) will not.

http://www.iptrackeronline.com/header.php

This will have a go at telling you more from the email headers where available. You can interpret if the results make sense or not (hint, all GMail ones come from West Coast USA, or seem to).

IP addresses are not a direct 1:1 map to people - best you'll usually get is it'll tie back to an ISP or organisation, getting further than that requires a bit of technical know-how

I only have the email in paper form without the headers, although it does have the senders email address on it, and 'their' name.

It's actually someone impersonating someone else, and I was wondering whether or not the person being impersonated had greater rights to view the IP address or not. The person being impersonated is fully aware of the whole situation.

Evilm

I would say that this might be a Police matter but I don't know if they'd be interested. I don't think you have any rights to the information directly yourself.

corbyboy

The "from" email address can be easily spoofed and shouldn't be relied on.

If you think somebody is doing something illegal then you need to talk to the police. There is nothing you can do yourself. If you get the IP address what do you think you can do with it?

The fact is you won't be able to trace this person yourself.

Andrew1975

corbyboy wrote: »

The "from" email address can be easily spoofed and shouldn't be relied on.

If you think somebody is doing something illegal then you need to talk to the police. There is nothing you can do yourself. If you get the IP address what do you think you can do with it?

The fact is you won't be able to trace this person yourself.

I accept that.

What I am wondering is if the person being impersonated has any rights to the information, as the e-mail purports to be from them? The e-mail says 'I am xxx and I am employed at xxx and I am writing to tell you etc...'

With the IP address I hope to be able to find where it came from originally. Although as someone mentioned earlier it probably takes a lot of technical know how.

As mentioned above although this may be a police matter they may not be interested, even if it is illegal.

paddyrg

The printed email is like having a photocopy of a letter without the original envelope. The headers are the envelope, and carry some forensic clues (routing information, etc). Without that, it is simple to fake in Word, you have nothing to go on.

Andrew1975

paddyrg wrote: »

The printed email is like having a photocopy of a letter without the original envelope. The headers are the envelope, and carry some forensic clues (routing information, etc). Without that, it is simple to fake in Word, you have nothing to go on.

Yes I'm aware of that which is why the providers help is needed which they will probably not give unless we can prove that we created the account (we didnt).

Thats why I'm asking if the person being impersonated may have rights to demand the origin of the email from the provider?

KiKi

Andrew1975 wrote: »

Yes I'm aware of that which is why the providers help is needed which they will probably not give unless we can prove that we created the account (we didnt).

Thats why I'm asking if the person being impersonated may have rights to demand the origin of the email from the provider?

And as before - I'm certain the answer's no. You need to get the police involved.

KiKi