I was recently reading the New York Court of Appeals ruling on People v Aleynikov, which involves someone copying Goldman Sachs's software and taking it to a ne

I was recently reading the New York Court of Appeals ruling on People v Aleynikov, which involves someone copying Goldman Sachs's software and taking it to a new startup. New York has a criminal offense called "Unlawful use of secret scientific material" that covered this case. Aleynikov argued that it only covers tangible representations of scientific material (which the court ruled covers computer source code), and that computer files are not tangible. The court disagreed, but did say: Defendant contends that if "tangible" means "having physical form," then the statutory term "tangible reproduction" would involve a redundancy because all computer data is stored in some physical medium. We disagree. Someone with a photographic memory who memorized a piece of source code would not be making a tangible reproduction of the code (see generally Bottone, 365 F2d at 393 [referring to a hypothetical "case where a carefully guarded secret formula was memorized, carried away in the recesses of a thievish mind and placed in writing only after a boundary had been crossed"]). It is true that copying secret scientific material solely by memorizing it would not fall under the statute for a separate reason, i.e., that{*31 NY3d at 400} it would not be "writing, photographing, drawing, mechanically or electronically reproducing or recording such secret scientific material" (Penal Law § 165.07). Nevertheless, the word "tangible," as we interpret it, does not introduce redundancy; it adds a modest element to "reproduction," serving to emphasize that the crime consists in making a physical, not a mental, copy of secret scientific material. (From: https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2018/2018_03174.htm https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2018/2018_03174.h...) So anyway, you're not violating New York State law if you remember how your system works and you take it to your next employer. Contracts you sign and patent law still exist, however.