Creative Computing v. Getloaded.com LLC
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
386 F.3d 930 (2004)

- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Creative Computing (Creative) (plaintiff) operated a website that matched shippers’ merchandise loads with empty trucks desiring a load to haul. The website used a radius-search feature to facilitate these matches. Getloaded.com LLC (Getloaded) (defendant) started a competing website. In an attempt to prevent Getloaded from taking Creative’s market share, Creative created a password system that prohibited competing matching companies from accessing its website. Still seeking to access Creative’s website, Getloaded deduced that trucking companies might use the same login information on Getloaded’s website as they did on Creative’s website. In this way, Getloaded used the login information of one of its clients to get into Creative’s website and see all the matching information on the website. In addition, Getloaded hacked into Creative’s website to examine the source code that Creative used for its radius-search feature. Creative sued Getloaded under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Getloaded argued that the CFAA contained a $5,000 floor for damages for each unauthorized computer access and that Creative could not reach this floor with any of Getloaded’s individual accesses.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Kleinfeld, J.)
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