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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 ..."

6 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.

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      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.

  2. Procedural error by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is a procedural error, not a statement that 'stealing' code isn't a crime. Rest assured, legislation is being drafted that will ensure that stealing from a poor, innocent company, will earn you at least 30 years in jail and an 8 trillion dollar fine. Really, it would be less troublesome to just murder the CEO the way the laws are being written these days...

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    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:Procedural error by PPH · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Correct. Not that what Aleynikov did wasn't wrong. But for our legal system to operate properly and fairly, we've go to stick to the rules. Now, I'm no legal scholar, but the judge evidently had reservations about exactly what the intent of Congress was when they wrote that federal statute. And that's a good thing. It will force them (Congress) to go back to the drawing board and address the different aspects of stealing/copying/damaging this class of property. And they very well may make a distinction between snatching a copy for yourself and depriving the original owner of the use of their property. And they might address the various ways that this deprivation can affect the owner, from an outright denial of service to the (imaginary or real) loss of potential market share. And each case could get its own legal treatment, which might end up being a good thing all around.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  3. Re:In other news: water is wet! by Fned · · Score: 5, Interesting

    All they have done is stated that code is non-corporeal. They haven't said stealing it isn't a crime...

    Who gives a shit if it's still a crime, do you realize what this means?!

    Now whenever someone says "copyright infringment is theft", instead of spending dozens of paragraphs pointing out the gigantic unpatchable holes in their spurious-ass inevitable failure of an argument, we can now just say, "Goldman-Sachs v. Aleynikov, your argument is invalid. STFU forever."

    This will save SO much time in the future.