Al,
Current legal thinking is that when a company owns the computer an employee is using, and the software being used, then they own the product of that software, including encrypted work, email, etc...

When I was consulting, I was hired by the State Highway patrol to crack encryption on confiscated computers, and I've been hired by corporations to visit every PC on the premises to 'clean it up': remove games, crack encryption, reorganize files, etc... The easiest way to crack encryption is to call the company that wrote the software and ask them for their backdoor password. They all have them. NSA even talked Zimmerman into putting a backdoor into the PGP program.

Just create a document that states that the company owns the computer in question, and the software on it, and will hold you blameless etc..., and will pay any legal bills arising from their requested actions. That's what your lawyer can do for you. Inlcude his fee in your charge to the company.

JLK




>I do network support for a small tech (non-computer) company. They are currently at a pre-IPO stage with just a core of fairly senior executive types.
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>I don't know the company well, nor any of the employees well personally.
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>They just went through some sort of struggle with the result that one of the employees has resigned effective immediately and has been locked out of his former office. Apparently this employee was responsible for most corporate communications and most of the company's documents are on his computer. Access to the computer is secured with a password, which the remaining employees don't have and which the former employee seems unwilling to provide.
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>Emotions are running high and legal action between the company and the former employee seems likely.
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>I have been asked to defeat the password on this computer (which I am capable of doing) so that the company can access the documents it contains.
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>The company CEO assures me that the computer is the property of company, not the former employee.
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>While I'm technically capable of doing the work, I'm extremely concerned about the legal ramifications:
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>- does legal ownership of the computer mean the company has carte blanche rights to all its contents?
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>- if the contents will become important in a legal dispute does special care need to be taken that its contents are not tampered with after access is achieved?
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>The last thing I want to do is open myself up to getting sued by the former employee for making this PC accessible to the company (which will likely be his legal adversary).
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>Opinions, anyone?
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>(BTW I *am* in the process of finding a lawyer to consult, just thought I'd ask here out of interest)