Starmer dumps doormat?

[Ian Batten]

On 15 Jan 2011, at 17:48, Peter Tomlinson wrote:

>  And if I open the letter and leave the contents on the doormat and someone reaches in with a camera and reads the letter, they are invading my privacy, but is that illegal? 

Well, they're arguably breaching the copyright of the original author, and if so would find it hard to claim that that there was any sort of implied permission to do so (unlike, say, the addressee of the letter scanning it into a filing system, or copying it to show to their solicitor).   But my suspicion is that the reason adduced historically against cryptanalysis and interception --- that gentlemen don't read each other's mail --- dies awfully hard, and your mail is mostly protected by fairly deep-seated taboos against reading other people's letters, rather than tangible statute or precedent.

ian