A software-copyright dispute blew up but good after a judge was swayed by the fact that a developer and security consultant describes himself and colleagues on his website as “good at hacking things.”
The case is sort of convoluted, but one key element is that Idaho National Laboratory convinced a federal judge to sanction the seizure of a computer belonging to former employee Corey Thuen. The court order came after the judge agreed with INL that Thuen might “release” an allegedly infringing program and “destroy evidence” by wiping his computer hard drives.
Thuen had no opportunity to argue against the seizure before it happened, and reportedly got a distressed call from his wife when INL attorneys turned up at his home to carry out the court’s order. You can get more on the story at Techdirt and the Google+ page of Thuen’s close friend Andreas Schou.
