Law Firm Cleared of Hacking Opponents' Web Archives

Yesterday's New Jersey Law Journal reported on a case (Healthcare Advocates Inc. v. Harding Earley Follmer & Frailey) in which a law firm had been sued for allegedgly violating copyright and anti-hacking laws when it recovered old web pages belonging to its client's adversary. The opinion by Judge Robert Kelley, Jr. of the US District Court of Eastern District of Pennsylvania stated that the firm, in accessing pages from the Way Back Machine, did not violate any law. As stated in the opinion, "They did not 'pick the lock' and avoid or bypass the protective measure, because there was no lock to pick...Nor did the Harding firm steal passwords to get around a protective barrier... The Harding firm could not 'avoid' or 'bypass' a digital wall that was not there." A copy of the Complaint is available here. The opinion does not appear to be online.