Oh, is hacking into emails a crime?

All the furor about Rupert (Sauron) Murdoch's latest crimes reminds a few of us what a phony tempest "Climategate" was . . . As Bob Park notes:

4. HACKERS: CLIMATEGATE REVISITED.

Two years ago, e-mail files of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia were hacked and selectively posted on the web. Rupert Murdoch newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, expressed shock at the "criminal conspiracy" and "scientific blacklisting." The "gate" suffix was added to invite comparison with the infamous break-in at the Watergate by Nixon's goons, but the climategate burglars were treated as heroes. There was not one line of criticism about the only criminal offense in the whole sordid climategate affair of hacking into private files. It is ironic that hacking by the Murdoch papers is now threatening the Murdoch empire.