Earlier proposals had called for unlimited access to both internet access and electronic communications, a move which met with stiff opposition form the Federal Court employees and judges who claimed that it violated the US Constitution.
Instead, monitoring will be left to the discretion of individual courts. Also forbidden is the downloading of music, porn or “any personal use that could cause congestion, delay or disruption of service to any government system or equipment.”
The ruling by the Judicial Conference also detailed the levels of public access to court documents on-line. Courts are to begin making civil and bankruptcy court files available on the internet. However, criminal case decisions will remain off-line for the time being and any sensitive personal information such as bank account details and social security numbers will be omitted.
OUT-LAW.COM offers a free ***Communications Policy*** which can be downloaded, amended and used by UK businesses to help regulate employee use of e-mail and the internet.