E-mail and Free Speech

Can unwanted e-mail messages from a disgruntled former employee be regarded as a common law trespass? That's what the California Supreme Court is now considering, and it looks as though the decision will be close.

Kourosh Kenneth Hamidi, a former Intel engineer in Folsom, sent about 100,000 e-mails to the company's work force after losing his job in 1995. Every three or four months for a year and a half, he managed to evade security measures designed to block his Intel-bashing messages.

In response, Intel sued, using an ancient legal theory of trespass to chattel -- property other than land -- in a novel way. The suit attracted widespread attention nationally when the lower courts enjoined Hamidi from trespassing on Intel's cyberspace.