EF CULTURAL TRAVEL BV, EF CULTURAL TOURS BV, EF INSTITUTE FOR CULTURAL EXCHANGE, INC., EF CULTURAL SERVICES BV, AND GO AHEAD VACATIONS, INC., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. EXPLORICA, INC., OLLE OLSSON, PETER NILSSON, PHILIP GORMLEY, ALEXANDRA BERNADOTTE, ANDERS ERIKSSON, DEBORAH JOHNSON, AND STEFAN NILSSON, Defendants, Appellants., 274 F.3d 577

Summary

On review, the court found that at the heart of the parties' dispute was whether the corporation's actions either were "without authorization" or "exceeded authorized access" as defined by the CFAA. The court concluded that because of the broad confidentiality agreement the corporation's actions "exceeded authorized access," and so the court did not reach the more general arguments made about statutory meaning. The court found that, if proven, the corporation's wholesale use of the tour company's travel codes to facilitate gathering tour company's prices from its website reeked of use--and, indeed, abuse--of proprietary information that went beyond any authorized use of appellee's website. Accordingly, the district court's finding that the corporation likely violated the CFAA was not clearly erroneous. Moreover, the court found that Congress's use of the disjunctive, "damage or loss," in the CFAA confirmed that it anticipated recovery in cases involving other than purely physical ...