MySpace, their side

Why didn't Attorney General Roy Cooper just send MySpace a subpoena?

An article in TechNewsWorld says the social networking site resisted turning over the information it had on sex offenders because Cooper and other attorneys general sent a regular letter.

Ken Dreifach, a partner with the law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, said that the company needed a subpoena to comply with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act:

"It's kind of law enforcement's way of saying, 'We have this authority.' And that's all that Congress wanted, but Congress was very, very clear that is has to be a subpoena. When you request information from an eBay, a Yahoo, a MySpace, all of which are companies that deal with prosecutors on a daily basis for issues large and small, it is commonly understood that you have to have the word 'subpoena' at the top of the piece of paper." 

Once the attorneys general agreed to send subpoenas, MySpace turned over the information.