Lawsuit challenges government's right to read your e-mail

A seller of "natural male enhancement" products sued after a fraud indictment based on evidence gleaned from his electronic mail.

The government needs a search warrant if it wants to read the U.S. mail that arrives at your home. But federal prosecutors say they don't need a search warrant to read your e-mail messages if those messages happen to be stored in someone else's computer.

That would include all of the Big Four e-mail providers -- Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail and Google -- that together hold e-mail accounts for 135 million Americans.[/q]