Fidlar Technologies v. LPS Real Estate Data Solutions, Inc.

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 15-1830
Decision Date: 
January 21, 2016
Federal District: 
C.D. Ill.
Holding: 
Affirmed

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff’s action alleging that defendant violated Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by improperly downloading county land records provided through plaintiff’s computer system. Record showed that defendant had paid officials from 82 counties for ability to have unlimited access to said counties’ land records, and defendant had designed its own “web-harvester” that was able to download said records without disrupting plaintiff’s services to other users seeking access to said land records or altering any content on plaintiff’s computer system. As such, plaintiff failed to show that defendant acted with intent to defraud, where it paid for unlimited access to said county land records, or that it had damaged plaintiff’s software/computers. Also, certain characteristics of plaintiff’s services suggested that downloading records through another program, like defendant’s web-harvester, was permissible.