Court Rules Code Not Physical Property

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 ..."

Comments

Criminal charges vs. civil suit

[sohmc]

That's the difference between the RIAA and Goldman Sachs. The RIAA doesn't arrest anyone or even get the state to arrest anyone. They just file lawsuits. Goldman Sachs actually wanted criminal charges.

I'm sure that Goldman Sachs will now file a copyright infringement lawsuit.

But it begs the question if anyone has ever been jailed for copyright infringement. My google skills are lacking now that I'm in my post-lunch coma...

Re:Criminal charges vs. civil suit

[jbengt]

I'm sure that Goldman Sachs will now file a copyright infringement lawsuit.

I'm not at all sure of that - a trade secret can't be copyrighted, can it?

Re:Procedural error

[element-o.p.]

"Credit fraud? My God, that's worse than murder!"

It was funny when I heard that line in "Max Headroom" back when I was a kid...