Common Law Trespass to Computers and Networks Law 897: Assignment for November 1st, 2006, R. Whitman Burns

Restatement (Second) of Torts

§217 (PDF) §256 (PDF) The following cases will expound on how the courts have construed these requirements in practice.

Introduction

Wilson v. Interlake Steel Co., 32 Cal.3d 229 (Cal. 1982)(HTML) *Optional* Thrifty-Tel v. Bezenek, 46 Cal. App. 4th 1559 (Cal. App. 1996) (HTML) *Read sections I&II Carefully*
Dan L. Burk, The Trouble With Trespass (PDF)

Laura Quilter, Regulating Conduct on the Internet: The Continuing Expansion of Cyberspace Trespass to Chattels (Pages 1-8) (PDF)

Pamela Samuelson, Unsolicited Communications as Trespass (PDF)

The Aftermath of Thrifty-Tel

From Thrifty-Tel, we now know that there must be damage for there to be a trespass to chattels cause of action. The next case is the first to apply trespass to chattels to the Internet in a spam case. Focus on the damage requirement.

CompuServe v. Cyber Promotions, 962 F.Supp. 1015 (S.D.Ohio 1997) (HTML) Intel v. Hamidi, (Cal. 2003) (PDF)
Steve Fischer, When Animals Attack: Spiders and Internet Trespass (Pages 8-15)(PDF)

Optional Cases

EBay v. Bidders Edge, (ND Cal 2000) (PDF)
America Online v. IMS, (ED Va 1998) (HTML)
Sotelo v. Direct Revenue, (ND Ill 2005) (PDF)


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