Computer code is not a physical object and cannot be stolen, only copied, according to a recent US court ruling. A former Goldman Sachs programmer, who had been convicted of theft of trade secrets for making off with some of his employer's exclusive code, recently had his conviction quashed.

The grounds?

Since Goldman Sachs was not deprived of the use of the code - only of its exclusive use - what he did was not theft.

This ruling may have far-reaching consequences as the issues of what constitutes theft and piracy continue to be thrashed out.

Could it mean that people rush to patent code to protect it from unauthorised copying?

More details of this story are here.