"...the company sued him in 1998, charging him with 'trespass to chattels' - a 17th century tort that prohibits meddling with and damaging another person's property for personal gain. Chattel is an old English word for 'property'..."
My interpretation is that chattel in this case is Intel's internal email system. I am in Intel's camp on this one. However, if Mr. Hamidi was illegally dismissed, I wish him well in his efforts through other legal channels available to him. I doubt seriously that the court would rule that unsolicitated email is illegal. I would expect them to require that plaintiffs to demonstrate sufficient "meddling and damage" had occurred (e.g. you can knock on my door every so often, but you cannot knock on my door incessantly at all hours of the day and night and disturb my well-being).
I do hope someone in the media nominates his lawyer for "Most Dramatic Quote on an Internet Theme" for the month of August 2002: "We are trying to make the public aware that the soul of the Internet is at stake here".
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