Creative Computing, Dba Internet truckstop.com v. getloaded.com Llc, And/or Codified Corporation, and Jack C. Martin

This case requires us to construe damages provisions in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Facts

Truck drivers and trucking companies try to avoid dead heading. “Deadheading” means having to drive a truck, ordinarily on a return trip, without a revenue-producing load. If the truck is moving, truck drivers and their companies want it to be carrying revenue-producing freight. In the past, truckers and shippers used black boards to match up trips and loads. Eventually television screens were used instead of blackboards, but the matching was still inefficient. Better information on where the trucks and the loads are — and quick, easy access to that information — benefits shippers, carriers, and consumers.

Creative Computing developed a successful Internet site, truckstop.com, which it calls “The Internet Truckstop,” to match loads with trucks. The site is very easy to use. It has a feature called “radius search” that lets a truck driver in, say, Middletown, Connecticut, with some space in his truck, find within seconds all available loads in whatever mileage radius he likes (and of course lets a shipper post a load so that a trucker with space can find it). The site was created so…