On February 5, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of a defendant that had been sued by a competitor for allegedly accessing the competitor's computer systems without authorization to download copyrighted materials in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA"). Because the defendant downloaded only publicly available materials and created trial accounts to the plaintiff's computer services, the court held that the defendant did not act without authorization within the meaning of the CFAA.
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