U.S. v. Nosal, Ninth Circuit, No. 10-10038, April 28, 2011

Decision: Employees violated the law by accessing a database for reasons contrary to the employer's intent, even though the employer had granted access for other reasons.

David Nosal was employed by an executive search firm. When he resigned, he asked several employees who had access to the company's database of executive candidates (which he never did have access to) to pass him information, contrary to company policy, and they did.

The federal government indicted the employees, alleging they violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which makes it illegal to access a computer without authorization, or to exceed authorized access, to obtain something of value or to commit fraud. The employees argued they couldn't violate CFAA because they were authorized to access the database.

The Ninth Circuit disagreed, holding that the CFAA applied because they accessed the database to use the information contrary to the employer's stated restrictions on its use. In a prior case, the court had found in favor of the employees where there were no restrictions on the use of database information, meaning whether employees violate the law or not may depend on company policy and stated restrictions.

Note: Employers should clearly state how employees are restricted from using information obtained from databases they are authorized to access.

The Ninth Circuit includes the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.