United States v. Brown

925 F.2d 1301 (1991)

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United States v. Brown

United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
925 F.2d 1301 (1991)

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Facts

John Brown (defendant) worked as a computer programmer for The Software Link, Inc. (TSL), based in Georgia. TSL was a software company, and one of its assets was a computer program known as PC-MOS/386. Brown moved to New Mexico. He was later investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which searched his home and found notebooks and a hard disk containing portions of the source code for PC-MOS/386. Brown was indicted for violating the National Stolen Property Act (NSPA) by transporting the source code for the computer program across state lines from Georgia to New Mexico. Brown moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the NSPA did not apply to source code because it was not a physical object. The trial court dismissed the indictment, ruling that the source code was not the type of property contemplated by the NSPA, which referred to the interstate transit of goods, wares, or merchandise. The United States appealed, arguing that an actual taking of physical goods occurred because the source code was never released outside of TSL but was still found inside Brown’s apartment.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Holloway, C.J.)

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