Wired:

U.S. District Judge Walter Rice ruled last week against Absolute Software, which provides software and services for tracking stolen computers. Absolute sought a summary judgment in its favor, insisting that one of its theft recovery agents acted properly when he captured sexually explicit images of Susan Clements-Jeffrey communicating via webcam with her boyfriend and passed them to police in an effort to recover the stolen computer.

Clements-Jeffrey is a substitute teacher who bought a stolen laptop from a student then used it to exchange explicit webcam video with her boyfriend, all of which was recorded by Absolute’s LoJack software (available for both OS X and Windows). The judge ruled that tracking IP addresses and trying to get a location fix on a stolen computer was acceptable, but intercepting video transmissions may violate federal wiretapping laws.

LoJack isn’t the only software to do this. I expect we’ll be hearing more about this case before it’s resolved.