MySpace’s refusal to provide defendant in rape case with victim’s account information upheld by California court

Leagle.com reports an appellate ruling in California where one of the issues involved MySpace’s challenge to a defendant’s subpoena duces tecum for information on the victim’s MySpace account:

In this case,  and prior to trial, a defendant in a rape case (Mohammad Yaqoob) argued information from the victim’s  MySpace account would assist the defense in deciding whether to conduct further investigation and her school records might contain information of disciplinary problems that are consistent with her behavior in this case.

Yaqoob argued the MySpace account information might contain information that would assist the defense in deciding whether to conduct further investigation, or impeachment material. Counsel for MySpace appeared in response to the subpoena. MySpace counsel argued compliance with the subpoena, to the extent it sought email messages, stored file content, photographs, or blog postings would violate federal law. Counsel asserted without the consent of the party, 18 United States Code section 2702² and 2703³ prohibited the release of the records sought by the subpoena except under certain specified exceptions, and no such exception allowed MySpace to release the records Yaqoob sought.

The trial court denied both requests.