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Court Rules Code Not Physical Property

Posted by timothy on from the took-them-this-long-to-notice dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Wired: "Former Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov, who downloaded source code for the investment firm's high-speed trading system from the company's computers, was wrongly charged with theft of property because the code did not qualify as a physical object under a federal theft statute, according to a court opinion published Wednesday." Adds the submitter: "The RIAA's definitely got to give Goldman Sachs their secret recipe ..."

4 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. "Intellectual" Proerty by SirBitBucket · · Score: 5, Funny

    Code can only be created by intellectuals, like /. readers; therefore, it is Intellectual Property, not some ho-hum, run-of-the-mill property...

    1. Re:"Intellectual" Proerty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Most men skip the design stage and go straight to the 'build and grow' stages. If successful, we tend to call the men "parents," but good luck getting the new automatons to actually mow the lawn.

    2. Re:"Intellectual" Proerty by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well as inheritor of the intellectual property of Genghis Khan, I will be replying to this cease-and-desist with a horde of mounted archers.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    3. Re:"Intellectual" Proerty by julesh · · Score: 5, Funny

      You'll find most patents expire at the point of a sword.