back to article FBI expands code theft charges against Chinese national

A Chinese national first arrested in December will face expanded charges over stealing source code in a Manhattan court on Thursday. The Justice Department's superseding indictment here says Xu Jiaqiang will appear in court on Thursday June 16 at White Plains. Originally arrested in December 2015 on a single count, Xu is now …

  1. MrDamage Silver badge

    "Stole"?

    So he deleted the source code from the server after he had copied it then?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Stole"?

      We need a new word, with the same emotional impact as "theft" and "stole", but with the right meaning.

      1. Julz

        Re: "Stole"?

        Clone-napped?

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

      3. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
        Joke

        Re: "Stole"?

        @Smooth Newt

        We need a new word, with the same emotional impact as "theft" and "stole", but with the right meaning.

        Shanghaied

        Old word, new meaning?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "Stole"?

          Purloined? (That's a fine English word you have there.)

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "Stole"?

        No need for a new word; the term 'copied' is appropriate in cases where what has been copied is protected by copyright. The relatively recent usage of 'steal' in this context is just an attempt to deceive, by employing emotion, in an attempt to make the crime (of copyright violation) seem worse than it is.

    2. Ian Michael Gumby
      Headmaster

      Re: "Stole"?

      Not to be a grammar nazi, but...

      Steal / Stole is the correct term.

      Taking a copy of the source code is theft. (noun. The act of stealing)

      You can steal intellectual property.

      How do you delete an idea?

      But getting back on point...

      The interesting comment was that he had a script that removed any reference to the originating company.

      As if that's the only way to identify the true owner of the code.

      1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Re: "Stole"?

        "How do you delete an idea?"

        Hand me that bat over there and I'll show you.

        But yes, a specific word for the theft of intellectual property would be nice.

        IIRC what my english teacher told me, Shakespeare made up around a thousand (!) new words and slipped them into the english language. Maybe a thousand commentards can come up with a handful of good suggestions.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "Stole"?

          A thousand commentards should be worth at least one word.

          How about a new reg measurement unit such as "kCom" or "Kilo Commentard" ?

          My vote is for Swipe (a combination of Steal and Wipe). Plus it is already in the vernacular

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Boffin

        Re: "Stole"?

        Taking a copy of the source code is theft. (noun. The act of stealing)

        The problem with the definition is that it typically includes "permanently depriving the owner". If I make a copy of your book, you still have your book.

        e.g. in UK law, Theft Act:

        A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and “thief” and “steal” shall be construed accordingly.

        It is a problem with motor vehicle "theft", the charge is usually "taking without consent" since the prosecution would otherwise have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the taker intended permanently depriving the owner of the vehicle.

        1. Ian Michael Gumby
          Boffin

          Re: "Stole"?

          Ah, but you have.

          The idea (IP) has value.

          Since you now have it... your use of it deprives the owner of value that you would have to pay for the idea, or value lost because you could be offering a competing product. So any value you gain from the IP is value that he or she has lost.

          Even if you give it away for free, where you don't gain any value from the IP you stole, you are depriving the IP owner from gaining revenue by those who now use said IP and do not have to pay the owner for the use of the IP.

          Got it?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            IP is theft (complete with permanently depriving everyone else)

            Show me some IP that was entirely new and your idea alone, i.e. you came up with the idea without ever being exposed to a society, education, senses or language etc. Every idea has already been thought before, just changing context doesn't make it new it makes it copying

  2. JaitcH
    FAIL

    There we go again ... FBI captures it's second favourite racial group

    How many times has a Chinese-heritage person been arrested, with great fanfare, involving alleged theft of technology, only to have the charges withdrawn?

    Take Mo Yun. A federal judge dismissed charges against the wife of a Chinese billionaire who was accused of conspiring to steal trade secrets from U.S. seed companies.

    The order signed instructs the government to return Mo Yun’s passport and immediately stop “all court-directed electronic monitoring,” meaning she can return to China.

    Then there was Xiaoxing XI - interim chair of the physics department at Temple University in Philadelphia. The IS government charged him with four counts of wire fraud, for four emails sent to contacts in China about establishing labs and a collaboration involving a thin film deposition device.

    Before a trial date had been set, the U.S. attorney’s office abruptly dropped the charges, noting that “additional information came to the attention of the government.”

    There was the man from Los Alamos; The scientist was fired but never arrested due to a lack of hard evidence."

    So any time the FBI toots their horn toss a very large bag over your shoulder - likely they are just looking for a bigger budget.

    A less racist group issued a report that included: "High-profile Chinese spy cases in the U.S.,especially these later found falsely accused, raise concerns by civil-rights groups about potential racial profiling of Chinese Americans, Asian Americans and immigrants of Chinese origin, particularly after the collapse of the "Chinese espionage" case against Wen Ho Lee. A prominent Chinese American and a member of the Committee of 100, Dr. George Koo wrote an article in 2015 warning that "Chinese Americans continue to be victimized by racial profiling" after seeing the latest victim Sherry Chen, who was falsefully accused of spying for China."

  3. Runilwzlb

    Stealing code...in Court?

    "A Chinese national first arrested in December will face expanded charges over stealing source code in a Manhattan court on Thursday."

    He stole code right there in Manhattan Court? Damn, he's good! (:p)

    Try: "A Chinese national first arrested in December will face expanded charges in a Manhattan court on Thursday.over stealing source code."

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