E-mail Injuncted

Excellent. National has obtained a High Court injunction against publication or distribution of the stolen e-mails.

The injunction covers both:

“those persons who gained unauthorised access to the plaintiff’s computer system and took copies of email messages (“the copied emails”) stored on the plaintiff’s computer system and “those persons who have physical possession of the copied emails or any part of them, whether in hard copy or as a record on a computer, without the consent of the plaintiff.”

And they are prohibited from:

(i) Copying (including by placing on a web site);
(ii) Issuing to the public;
(iii) Broadcasting or including in a cable programme service;
(iv) Making an adaptation of;
(v) Authorising any of the actions referred to in (i) to (iv)

And even better:

the first and second defendants by themselves, their servants or agents or companies under their control be and are hereby restrained from communicating to any other person the contents of copies of emails in their possession, power or control,

So if (for example) Winston whispers any more material from the e-mails to Helen, for her to threaten Brash with, he will be in breach of the court order.

And finally:

All copies of emails in the possession, power or control of defendants served with a copy of these orders, which emails were sent by the plaintiff to third persons or by third persons to the plaintiff, which copies of emails were not provided to the first or second defendants by either the plaintiff or by a third person who, in relation to any specific email, was the sender of that email, shall be placed forthwith in the custody of the Court by being lodged with the Registrar of the High Court at Wellington

Hopefully the defendents will obey the law and return the stolen e-mails, and this may also assist the criminal investigation into who actually stole them.