Sierra Corporate Design v. Falk [1]

Sierra Corporate Design ("Sierra"), a self-described "specialized Internet service provider and web hosting provider," sued Ed Falk, an anti-spam campaigner and operator of the "Spam Tracking Page," and David Ritz, a member of one of Falk's Usenet groups, in North Dakota state court for violations of North Dakota's computer crime statute (N.D. Cent. Code § 12.1-06.1-08 [2]) and trespass to chattels.

The complaint alleged that Ritz hacked servers owned by Sierra, gathered confidential information (in the form of "internal network configurations and NIP addresses for Sierra's network" and "private domain name/IP address/company information"), and published that information on the Internet. It alleged that Falk was aware of Ritz's unauthorized access to Sierra's servers and assisted in publishing Sierra's information by posting a link to Ritz's announcement on Usenet that itself linked to Ritz's website, where Sierra's information appeared.

In October 2006, the North Dakota court held that it did not have jurisdiction over Falk, dismissed the lawsuit against him, and vacated a default judgment that previously had been entered against him. (This case is related to Jerry Reynold's defamation suit against Falk, which is addressed in another CMLP database entry [3].)

Update:

1/11/2008 - After a bench trial, the court ruled in favor of Sierra, finding that Ritz had committed trespass to chattels by accessing its computers without authorization and with malicious intent. The court awarded Sierra $2,930 in actual damages and $50,000 in exemplary damages, and fined Ritz $10,000 for violating a court order. The court permanently enjoined Ritz from accessing Sierra's computers. The court held that Sierra also was entitled to attorneys' fees and ordered Sierra to submit an application for fees within thirty days.