A federal trial court in Chicago has ruled recently that the ancient legal doctrine of trespass to chattels (meaning trespass to personal property) applies to the interference caused to home computers by spyware. Information technology has advanced at warp speed with the law struggling to keep up, and this is an example of a court needing to use historical legal theories to grapple with new and previously unforeseen contexts in Cyberspace.

In Sotelo v. DirectRevenue, the plaintiff filed a complaint against various defendants alleging that, without his consent, the defendants caused spyware to be downloaded onto his computer. In a nutshell, the plaintiff alleged that the spyware tracked his Internet use, invaded his privacy, and caused damage to his computer.

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I’ve often explained to politicos and anarco-libertarians that spammers illegally trespass when they connect to a mail server and dump hundreds of thousands of unwanted messages, using up bandwidth and disk space. Its the reason I applaud the Georgia Gen. Assembly for passing the Slam Spam act last session.

Its nice to see a judge apply common sense to technology. I would much rather apply well tested legal principles to new technologies than rely on statutory solutions. The DMCA is a prime example of what can go wrong when a special interest driven legislature gets involved.