An Internet bookseller, which also operated an Internet communications service, has been charged in federal court with intercepting e-mail from Amazon.com and the unauthorized possession of password files.
A criminal information was filed charging Alibris, Emeryville, CA, with 10 counts of unlawful interception of e-mail and one count of unauthorized possession of passwords with intent to defraud. As part of a plea agreement, which must be approved by a U.S. District Court judge, Alibris has agreed to pay a $250,000 fine.
The criminal information alleges that Alibris’ corporate predecessor, Interloc Inc., an online bookseller and provider of e-mail service to its customer book dealers in the Greenfield, MA area, had intercepted e-mail messages from online bookseller Amazon.com to Alibris/Interloc clients who had Interloc e-mail addresses.
Neither Interloc, nor the Internet service portion of the business exist any longer.
According to a U.S. attorney in Boston, the purpose of the interception was partly to gain competitive commercial advantage for Alibris/Interloc’s own book selling business by compiling a database of dealers’ purchases. Thousands of e-mail communications were intercepted between January and June 1998, the documents state. The papers also allege that Interloc obtained unauthorized copies of proprietary password files and customer lists of its competitor Internet service providers.
Alibris CEO Martin Manley told DIRECT Newsline that when book dealer clients complained about not receiving e-mail, Interloc collected the incoming e-mail in an effort to diagnose the problem. Saying that Alibris was unaware of the practice and that it closed down Interloc when the investigation began, Manley emphasized that there was no intent to defraud. “Nobody’s confidential information was released,” he said.
Pointing out that ignorance of his former employees’ practices was not an adequate defense, Manley said, “We agreed that some of our employees broke the law and we agreed to settle.”
