US news publishers are not prohibited from publishing copyrighted information for the purpose of making the news. That’s part of the First Amendment. Whether t

US news publishers are not prohibited from publishing copyrighted information for the purpose of making the news. That’s part of the First Amendment. Whether the repair shop owner had copyright to the content is totally irrelevant. He had legal possession of the drive, and handed it to a journalist who found something newsworthy on it. Almost every single major story every told in modern history will contain essentially the same type of information transfer, and it is not illegal for the journalist to use this information or publish it if it’s newsworthy. Sometimes a source can go to jail for sharing the information. But almost certainly that won’t happen in this case, because there is no evidence that the repair shop owner did anything wrong. In fact, he was the one who called the FBI!