Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted

BNA's Computer Technology Law Report is an excellent resource, with an admirable amount of material available f-r-e-e online (no registration, even). Check out the topical, alphabetical and date indices.

Highlights from the current issue include coverage of the "Litigation Issues for New Media" panel at the Advanced Computer and Internet Law Institute, held last month at the Georgetown University Law Center. The panel featured Cindy Cohn and others discussing current issues in technology law, including the trespass to chattels doctrine and Web jurisdiction.

All of which is an admittedly roundabout (but hopefully useful) way of getting to the point: I'm surprised—and particularly in light of yesterday's district court decision—I haven't yet heard of a P2P network asserting trespass to chattels, nuisance or tortious interference as potential bases for barring the introduction of bogus files intended to meddle with the system and frustrate users. Standing would perhaps be an issue, since files being shared do not reside on network servers but rather on users' computers, but it would seem pretty self-evident that those planting fake files seek deliberately to undermine the economics of the network.

Bonus link: the EFFector, the EFF's online newsletter.

P.S.: There are some 15 blawgs I need to add to the blawgroll here(!), hopefully tomorrow.