P1026 The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and specifically the portion of it known as the Stored Communications Act, prohibits providers of electronic communication service such as internet websites from divulging the contents of a communication stored or carried by them; California's Journalist's Shield, which prevents the publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or other periodical from being held in contempt for refusing to disclose the source of information obtained in gathering, receiving or processing information for communication to the public, applies to operators of internet websites.

O'GRADY v SUPERIOR COURT (Internet Publication) 139 CA4 1423 [See: 18 USC 2701-2712; CA Const I, 2; EvC 1070; Mitchell v Superior Court 37 C3 268; Rancho v Superior Court 68 CA4 1538, T/AT 2/99]