As I said, I have doubts. I'm not saying "definitely illegal," just dubious as all hell. In terms of specifics, maybe not anything criminal (though a prosecuto

As I said, I have doubts. I'm not saying "definitely illegal," just dubious as all hell. In terms of specifics, maybe not anything criminal (though a prosecutor could try the CFAA), but on the civil side tort law trespass theories, maybe also unjust enrichment theories, would be well worth a try for a plaintiff's lawyer. But really, I'm thinking in terms of more abstract legal ideas that could use some caselaw development to flesh out---the notion that there's an implied license to use resources on a user's computer to an ordinary extent and for an ordinary purpose---and grabbing onto those resources for this kind of extraordinary purposes without prior notice violates that license in just the same kind of way that (eg) triggering a more conventional malware download would. If you buy that theory (and I tentatively do), then there are lots of concrete legal doctrines to hook it to.