Source: http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?page=11&xmldoc=20071124497FSupp2d627_11069.xml&docbase=CsLwAr3-2007-Curr&SizeDisp=7
Timestamp: 2013-05-24 06:46:11
Document Index: 125407186

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1030', '§ 1030', '§ 1030', '§ 1030', '§ 1030', '§ 106']

Healthcare Advocates also believes I.M.S. Inquiry Mgmt. Sys., Ltd., v. Berkshire Info. Sys., Inc.,307 F.Supp.2d 521 (S.D.N.Y.2004), is relevant to this civil action. But, in that case, a New York federal district court found that the unauthorized use of a password did not constitute circumvention under the DMCA. Id. at 530-33. While the defendant was not given permission to use the password from the password owner, the court held that his action was not a circumvention of the password protection. Id. at 532-33. That court found that the defendant's actions did not avoid or bypass the password protection even though those terms were meant to be interpreted broadly. Id. That court noted that what the defendant avoided was the permission to use the password, and that was not the situation the DMCA was written to address. That court said that the DMCA deals with situations where the digital walls guarding copyrighted material are avoided. Id. That defendant did not avoid the wall, rather he simply stole the key and opened the door himself.Neither of these cases lend support to Plaintiffs assertion. These cases do not stand for the proposition that Plaintiffs robots.txt file was circumvented merely by the Harding firm making requests via the Wayback Machine. The Harding firm did not use alter code language to render the robots.txt file void like the defendant in Corley did with the encryption. They did not "pick the lock" and avoid or bypass the protective measure, because there was no lock to pick. Internet Archive's servers said that no lock existed when the requests were made. Nor did the Harding firm steal passwords to get around a protective barrier like the defendant in the I.M.S. case. No protective wall existed according to the Wayback Machine. The Harding firm could not "avoid" or "bypass" a digital wall that was not there. The court in the I.M.S. case said that a lack of permission does not constitute circumvention under the DMCA. Simply making further requests [
497 F.Supp.2d 646
] is not circumvention under the DMCA.Healthcare Advocates' inference that the Harding firm should have known that they were not allowed to view any archived images via the Wayback Machine is both unreasonable and irrelevant. Mr. Riddle and Ms. Titus testified that they knew some of the images they tried to access were blocked. (Pl's Mot. Partial Summ. J. Ex. D, Riddle Dep. at 123-24; Ex. E, Titus Dep. at 78-80.) When the screenshot was blocked, the Wayback Machine returned a message stating that the page was blocked by the website owner. (Pl's Mot. Partial Summ. J. Ex. C, printout of "Robots.txt Query Exclusion" page; Ex. D, Riddle Dep. at 139; Ex. E, Titus Dep. at 107-09.) The message also included links, one of which said, "Try another request or click here to search for all pages on healthcareadvotates.com." (Pl's Mot. Partial Summ. J. Ex. C, printout of "Robots.txt Query Exclusion" page.) Ms. Titus testified that when this page appeared, she clicked on the link and received a list of all available screenshots, which she viewed and printed. (Pl's Mot. Partial Summ. J. Ex. E, Titus Dep. at 107.) Even if it the Harding firm knew that Healthcare Advocates did not give them permission to see its archived screenshots, lack of permission is not circumvention under the DMCA.The Harding firm did not circumvent the robots.txt file utilized by Healthcare Advocates. Making requests for archived images via the Wayback Machine, even after some requests were denied, is not avoiding or bypassing the measure. The facts show that the Harding firm received the archived images solely because of a malfunction in the servers processing the requests. The Harding firm is therefore granted summary judgment on count I of Plaintiffs Second Amended Complaint. Healthcare Advocates' Motion is consequently denied.C. Computer Fraud and Abuse ActHealthcare Advocates alleges that the Harding firm exceeded its authorized access by merely viewing archived screenshots of Healthcare Advocates' website via the Wayback Machine. (Compl. ¶ 85.) The CFAA is the centerpiece of federal enforcement efforts against computer based crimes. The statute makes it a crime to "intentionally access[] a computer without authorization or exceed[] authorization, and thereby obtain[] information from any protected computer if the conduct involved interstate or foreign communication[.]" 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2)(C) (2007). "[T]he term `exceeds authorized access' means to access a computer with authorization and to use such access to obtain or alter information in the computer that the accesser is not entitled so to obtain or alter[.]" 18 U.S.C. § 1030(e)(6). A protected computer is one "used in interstate or foreign commerce or communication[.]" 18 U.S.C. § 1030(e)(2)(B).Under the statute, "Any person who suffers damage or loss by reason of a violation of this section may maintain a civil action against the violator to obtain compensatory damages and injunctive relief or other equitable relief." 18 U.S.C. § 1030(g). "A civil action for a violation of this section may be brought only if the conduct involves 1 of the factors set forth in clause (i), (iii), (iv), or (v) of subsection (a)(5)(B)." Id. Subsection 1030(a)(5)(B)(i) imposes a requirement that the party bringing the claim must suffer a loss "during any 1 — year period . . . aggregating at least $5,000 in value[.]" "Damages for a violation involving only conduct described in subsection (a)(5)(B) (i) are limited to economic damages." 18 U.S.C. § 1030(g). <<Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Next>> Footnotes1. A screenshot is an image taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor or another visual output device. Usually this is a digital image taken by the host operating system or software running on the computer device, but it can also be a capture made by a camera or a device intercepting the video output of the computer. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, "Screenshot" available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Screenshot.Back to Reference2. § 106. Exclusive rights in copyrighted works