HIQ LABS, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. LINKEDIN CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant., 31 F.4th 1180

Summary

HOLDINGS: [1]-A competitor raised at least serious questions going to the merits of its tortious interference with contract claim because a professional networking website might well not be able to demonstrate a "legitimate business purpose" that could justify the intentional inducement of a contract breach; [2]-The competitor raised serious questions about whether the website could invoke the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C.S. § 1030, to preempt its possibly meritorious tortious interference claim because the data the competitor sought to access was not owned by the website and had not been demarcated by the website as private using an authorization system. Authorization was only required for password-protected sites or sites that otherwise prevented the general public from viewing the information. The concept of "without authorization" did not apply to public websites.