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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 ..."

2 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Procedural error by girlintraining · · Score: 4, Informative

    What I don't understand is why they want to believe that Stealing code is a piece of property....But Importing Code from another country is just information (not requiring import taxes etc....) How on earth can it be both?

    Easy. Like this: "Hey, legislator, I want a new law passed that makes absolutely no sense but will benefit me greatly. In exchange, I'll pay for your re-election campaign." "derp derp herp derp." "Okay then! Thank you for your cooperation."

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
  2. Re:Criminal charges vs. civil suit by am+2k · · Score: 4, Informative

    But it begs the question if anyone has ever been jailed for copyright infringement.

    Yep: Kino.to Admin Gets 2,5 Years Prison Sentence.