Microsoft Loses Round In Fight Over Email Held In Irish Data Center

Rarely do Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, Apple, Cisco and the ACLU all agree on a particular subject; rarer still that such an unlikely coalition fails.

Last week, in a case of first impression, a District Court in New York denied Microsoft's request to quash a portion of a government warrant seeking data about a customer's MSN.com email, from a Microsoft server located in Dublin, Ireland.  The warrant was issued by the government pursuant to the Stored Communications Act (the "SCA"), which was enacted almost three decades ago to address disclosures by Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") of "stored wire and electronic communications and transactional records."  Microsoft's efforts to quash were supported by amici AT&T, Verizon, Apple and Cisco.