Computer Crime and Intellectual Property

The United States has created enforceable rights in "intangibles" that are known as intellectual property, including copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. Copyright law provides federal protection against infringement of certain exclusive rights, such as reproduction and distribution, of "original works of authorship," including computer software, literary works, musical works, and motion pictures. 17 U. S. C. 102(a), 106. The use of a commercial brand to identify a product is protected by trademark law, which prohibits the unauthorized use of "any word, name, symbol, or device" used by a person "to identify and distinguish his or her goods, including a unique product, from those manufactured or sold by others and to indicate the source of the goods." 15 U. S. C. 1127. Finally, trade secret law prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of any confidential and proprietary information, such as a formula, device, or compilation of information but only when that information possesses an independent economic value because it is secret and the owner has taken reasonable measures to keep it secret. 18 U. S. C. 1831, 1832.