If you have not already seen it, you might find this case interesting, as it advances the interpretation of what is considered to be “in the course of transmission”, for the purposes of RIPA. It’s a “voicemail hacking” case, focussing on whether the actions of Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and others could fall within the ambit of unlawful interception of communications.
Focussing particularly on voicemail, although making some interesting comments about email too, the case holds that, where a communication is stored on the infrastructure of a communications provider, access to that stored communication is an act of interception even where it has already been accessed or collected by the intended recipient. In other words, it provides some clarity on where the endpoint of a communication is for a hosted message service, for interception purposes.
