From http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/ieeecw/issues/2012-05-02-email.html:

IEEE ComputerWise
Software, Systems and IT: News and Analysis May 2, 2012

Two US Appeal Court Opinions Throw Software-related-theft Laws a Curve

by Robert N. Charette
The U.S. Congress may have to revamp laws that ostensibly set the rules regarding what constitutes illegal activity when it comes to information technology. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned the conviction of someone charged with stealing proprietary data from a former employer, reasoning that the wording of the law that prosecutors said he violated points specifically to hacking into computer systems and not the misappropriation of information residing there by an otherwise authorized user. A day later, a separate appeals court overturned the conviction of another defendant whose lawyers successfully appealed his conviction for violating that same law and two others—again arguing that the facts of the case didn’t fit the wording of the criminal statutes.