http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... sts-emails

I'd suggest next time that they call the FBI outright and let them take the heat rather than going vigilante

Not sure the FBI would want to get involved. I'm not sure any criminal act has taken place and even if so, it would be an hell of an argument to claim it fell under the FBI's remit.

Given the whole 'scroogled' campaign, the hypocrisy is rather evident.

It's IP theft of the source code as I understand it, or at least that's how the investigation started, making it a federal offence. The journo would still fall under the FBI's remit to my mind, though I'm thinking he wouldn't talk so at that point the FBI would make MS go searching, leaving them with less of a PR headache.

A crime die take place, industrial espionage is a crime in the USA and they haven't changed their privacy policy, they have just added another check to the procedure, instead of just asking the lawyers, they will ask an ex-judge for his agreement that they are acting within the law. The existing rules, which they used here were to ask a separate, internal legal team, who had nothing to do with the case.

And journalist? It was an anonymous French blogger, who specialised in leaking Microsoft material.

Well, no. It's breach of copyright (not always criminal) or breach of the terms of his contract (definitely not criminal). You can't actually 'steal' IP. Unless they're state secrets, in which case it's espionage or treason and still not 'theft'.

You could find a set of words which would make it sound like something the FBI should be involved in. But the FBI is very busy chasing murderers and what have you and don't look kindly on people trying to drag them into their 'personal' disputes. If I was the local bureau chief I'd be non-committal at best. Doesn't mean whoever is head of MS these days can't call a senator or two and pull rank to get them notionally 'involved' but I wouldn't expect them to put much effort into it.

The IP is considered a 'trade secret' (feel the semantics!), which is where the FBI came in, apparently.



https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/604 ... plaint.pdf

I remembered some of this sh1t when I was amazed to find out the FBI would turn up for a guy copying DVDs lol.

In the United States, trade secret law is primarily handled at the state level under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which most states have adopted, and a federal law, the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C. §§ 1831–1839), which makes the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime. This law contains two provisions criminalizing two sorts of activity. The first, 18 U.S.C. § 1831(a), criminalizes the theft of trade secrets to benefit foreign powers. The second, 18 U.S.C. § 1832, criminalizes their theft for commercial or economic purposes.

They've confirmed they'll bring in law enforcement next time

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/ ... ls-1238094