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from the banking-conduct-that-warrants-prosecution dept.
The New York Times and The Register report that former Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov's conviction for "unlawful use of secret scientific material" has been overturned:
[...] celebration may not last long. State prosecutors in Manhattan have already indicated they may appeal the decision issued Monday, which threw out a jury's verdict. Once before, Mr. Aleynikov had believed he was in the clear, when a federal appeals court overturned his conviction under a federal corporate espionage law in 2012. The appellate court ruled that federal prosecutors in Manhattan had misapplied the law, and it ordered Mr. Aleynikov to be immediately released from a federal prison.
Less than a year later, however, Mr. Aleynikov was back in court defending himself, after state prosecutors in Manhattan charged him with violating state computer-theft-related laws. Now Justice Conviser — much like the federal appellate court before him — ruled that the decades-old state law that Mr. Aleynikov was convicted of violating did not apply to the accusations against him.
Justice Conviser said he did not find sufficient legal evidence to support the jury's conviction in May, which came after eight days of deliberation and two dozen requests for testimony to be read back or the statute's arcane terminology to be explained. He said the jury's confusion had been understandable, given that the "unlawful use of secret scientific material" criminal statute that Mr. Aleynikov was charged with violating was enacted in 1967 and predates much of the digital age. The judge said the state law was out of step with modern electronic communications and needed to be amended. He said that if prosecutors wanted to criminalize the kind of conduct Mr. Aleynikov engaged in when he downloaded portions of Goldman's source code onto his personal computer before leaving for a new job in June 2009, they should petition the Legislature to either amend the statute or pass a new law.
"We update our criminal laws in this country, however, through the legislative process," Justice Conviser said. "Defendants cannot be convicted of crimes because we believe as a matter of policy that their conduct warrants prosecution." A conviction on a charge of unlawful use of secret scientific material required prosecutors to prove that Mr. Aleynikov had made a "tangible" reproduction of the files he downloaded. But in his ruling on Monday, Justice Conviser said prosecutors had not submitted any evidence that the source code downloaded by Mr. Aleynikov "could be touched" or had "physical form," which is the essence of something being tangible. [...] The judge noted that the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York supported several legislative proposals to "modernize" the state's criminal laws with regard to computer crime.
Here is our previous story on Aleynikov's conviction.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday July 07 2015, @10:31AM
Americans cannot be prosecuted for acts that were legal at the time they carried them out.
That is, unless they are Communists: Julius and Ethel Rosenburg were executed for treason. I expect they broke some manner of law but at the time they passed the Manhattan Project secrets to the Soviet Union, the Soviets were our allies.
Klaus Fuchs had the sense to skip town. While he did time, the British did not charge him with treason.
Not long after the fall of Communism, a formerly-Soviet Russian general claimed that J. Robert Oppenheimer specifically requested that Fuchs pass the bomb secrets to the Soviets, so they would have some hope of preventing the united states from laying waste to their homeland.
Everyone suspected he did so, however no one could prove it. "In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer" is a transcript of the hearing which resulted in him losing his clearance.
Edward Teller established the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California because Oppenheimer, still the Scientific Director at Los Alamos, opposed the development of the Hydrogen Bomb, despite that Oppenheimer intended to create "The Heavy" from the very start.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 07 2015, @06:40PM
That is, unless they are Communists: Julius and Ethel Rosenburg were executed for treason. I expect they broke some manner of law but at the time they passed the Manhattan Project secrets to the Soviet Union, the Soviets were our allies.
Glancing at Wikipedia, it appears that the primary point was to make an example of anyone who didn't cooperate. Tell us what you know, or you'll end up like the Rosenbergs did. Also, the Rosenbergs actually were accused of violating a part of the Espionage Act of 1917, which is one of the more notorious laws still on the books from that era. And the law apparently is vaguely written enough so that the Rosenbergs' accused activity would have fallen under the Act even if Russia wasn't an enemy of the US at any time.
To convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies. This was punishable by death or by imprisonment for not more than 30 years or both.