Journalism in the Twenty-First Century - on-line information, Electronic Databases and the news

employee of Texas Instruments Automatic Computer Corporation (TI), had used a photocopy machine at TI to make copies of 59 of Tl's computer programs. The defendant then removed only the copies from the TI premises and offered to sell them to Texaco, one of Tl's competitors, for $5 million. The defendant claimed on appeal that no property worth more than $50 had been stolen from TI and that at most he had stolen $35 worth of copy paper. The Fifth Circuit upheld the state court conviction and advised that the state court's decision was supported by similar federal court rulings under 2314 and cited the Seagraves decision. Moreover, for purposes of 2314, the phrase "stolen, converted, or taken by fraud" has been broadly applied to factual settings where the beneficial rights of owners of property are interfered with, notwithstanding the fact that the acts atleged would not constitute 'theft' as that term was defined at common law. Tomlinson, 574 F. Supp. at 1535. See e.g., United States v Drebin, 557 F.2d 1316 (9th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 436 US 904 (1978) (duplicates of copyrighted materials where originals were left in owner's possession); Greenwald, supra, (conversion of secret chemical formulations where originals were left in owner's possession); United States v Lester, 282 F.2d 750 (3d Cir. 1960), cert. denied, 364 US 937 (1961) (transport of photostatic copies of maps where originals were left in owner's possession).

CONCLUSION Because of its misinterpretation of Dowling and other cases applying the NSPA to intangible property, the Tenth Circuit's Opinion in Brown should not be viewed as persuasive authority with respect to the scope of 2314, especially in light of the District Court's opinion in Riggs. A resolution of the conflict between Brown and Riggs is important because 2314 is an important tool for enforcing intellectual property rights, such as trade secrets. Hopefully, the resolution will come soon since federal appellate courts are increasingly concerned over the adequacy of handling of intellectual property cases in federal courts. As noted by the Seventh Circuit in the recent trade secret case, Rockwell Graphics Systems v DEV Industries, 925 F.2d 174 (7th Cir. 1991): "This is an important case because trade secret protection is an important part of intellectual property, a form of property that is of growing importance to the competitiveness of American industry....The future of the nation depends in no small part on the efficiency of industry, and the efficiency of industry depends in no small part on the protection of intellectual property."

William J. Cook Report Correspondent, is a trial attorney with the United States Attorney's Office in Chicago, specializing in white-collar crime and computer and telecommunications crime prosecutions. He is the head of the US Attorney's Computer Fraud and Abuse Task Force. ©1992 William J. Cook, Chicago, IL. All rights reserved.

BOOK REVIEW

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Journalism in the Twenty-First Century - On-Line Information, Electronic Databases and the News, by Tom Koch, 1991 (loose-leaf book) (Adamantine Press), 374 pp, £13.50, ISBN 0-7449-0032-8 This book looks at the effect that electronic databases and on-line libraries are having on the content of news, the way it is written and the forms it takes. The premise of the book is that, in the next century, the electronic information revolution is poised to alter forever both the way the news is written and the way that it is read. The book is aimed particularly at the public information writer and shows how on-line resources can be used efficiently

and inexpensivelyby journalists lacking the financial resourcesof a large corporation. Its thesis is that on-line data technology empowers writers and reporters by providing them with information equal to, or greater than, that possessed by the public or private official they are assigned to interview. New technology, therefore, is destined to alter fundamentally the relations between writer and news subject. The work contains, in addition, a selected bibliography and an appendix of databases and vendors.

Available from Adamantine Press, 3 Henrietta Street, CoventGarden, London, WC2E 8LU. 80