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The NSPA does not criminalize the theft of intangible things. ... By uploading Goldman's proprietary source code to a computer server in Germany, Aleynikov stole purely intangible property embodied in a purely intangible format. There was no allegation that he physically seized anything tangible from Goldman. ... We decline to stretch or update statutory words of plain and ordinary meaning in order to better accommodate the digital age.Aleynikov was also acquitted under the Economic Espionage Act because the source code was not sufficiently related to the product produced by Goldman Sachs.
Lawmakers have struggled recently to pass laws that sufficiently balance intellectual property rights and rights of its citizens in a digital age. In January, the US House of Representatives agreed to postpone hearings on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) [text, PDF] after several major websites, consumer advocacy groups and the president voiced opposition to the bill. Earlier that month, the Spanish government approved a new law [JURIST report] that creates a government agency with the authority to force Internet service providers to block certain websites that are involved in pirating copyrighted material. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in November that Internet service providers cannot be required by law to monitor[JURIST report] their customers' activities as an attempt to combat illegal sharing of copyrighted material.
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