Part of the larger problem, there not being any case law yet for the internet. From Flash Boys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Aleynikov He also cleared his work computer of his traces when he left (keystrokes etc) out of habit, and took a flash drive with some code he'd written, basic stuff according to him, which Goldman decided it owned. The courts have no idea what to do, and the judges and prosecutors frequently had no idea what the technical terminology of the case meant.On July 3, 2009, he was arrested by FBI agents at Newark Liberty International Airport after Goldman raised the alarm over a suspected security breach. He was accused by the FBI of improperly copying computer source code that performs "sophisticated, high-speed and high-volume trades on various stock and commodity markets", as described by Goldman. The events leading to his arrest are covered by Michael Lewis in his 2014 book Flash Boys.[6] According to Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Facciponti, "the bank has raised the possibility that there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways."[7] Aleynikov acknowledged downloading some source code, but maintained that his intent was to collect open-source code. As this is a common practice among programmers, this is notoriously difficult to prove.