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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 ..."

3 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 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
    2. Re:"Intellectual" Proerty by julesh · · Score: 5, Funny

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