Ropp

ORDER RE: MOTION TO DISMISS

I.

INTRODUCTION

In the present case, a federal grand jury indicted defendant Ropp for allegedly attempting to intercept electronic communications in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2511 (l)(a) by installing a device, called a KeyKatcher, on the desktop computer of Karen Beck at the Orange County offices of Bristol West Insurance Group/Coast Nation Insurance Company. For purposes of this motion, the parties agree that Ropp placed the KeyKatcher on the cable that connects Ms. Beck’s keyboard to her computer’s central processing unit (CPU). As Ms. Beck composed e-mails and other messages by depressing keys on the keyboard (an act known to some of us as “typing”), the KeyKatcher recorded and stored the electronic impulses traveling down the cable between her keyboard and the computer to which it was attached. The KeyKatcher, in this way, “eavesdrops” on the person typing messages into the computer.

After the KeyKatcher has performed its “eavesdropping function,” anyone who obtains possession of the device can recover, from its memory, the stored impulses and convert them to text. The KeyKatcher therefore enables a person who has possession of the device to…