Comments on: Plaintiffs Are Still Litigating–and Losing–Website Framing Cases (S&S v. Promo Hunt) https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2026/04/plaintiffs-are-still-litigating-and-losing-website-framing-cases-ss-v-promo-hunt.htm Thu, 30 Apr 2026 01:38:00 +0000 hourly 1 By: Charles Barton https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2026/04/plaintiffs-are-still-litigating-and-losing-website-framing-cases-ss-v-promo-hunt.htm#comment-4608 Thu, 30 Apr 2026 01:38:00 +0000 https://blog.ericgoldman.org/?p=28840#comment-4608 A webpage is a a message encoded in HTML. Isn't a message intangible property? How can a message be chattel?

Trespass to chattels does apply to the internet, but narrowly.

Liability requires actual impairment of computer systems.

Courts have rejected using the doctrine to:
1. control speech or
2. punish mere access.

I suppose if the server and client computer are considered to be a temporarily assembled network system. The server site might argue that the third party popup impairs the temporarily assembled network system, but this argument seems fanciful because the popup was already part of the client computer system before the temporarily assembled network system was created.

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