[familyofman]

"It is important to note that the memos weren't "hacked" or "stolen" — due to an error committed by the Democrats' own IT personnel, the memo files were accessible to all."

How would this logic apply to an unlocked car? If someone other than an owner takes a car that was left unlocked (accessible to all), then the car wasn't stolen? What rule of law are you basing your analysis on?
Taking what is not yours is generally considered theft.

[Dog]

Read up on the computer system that the Senate uses before you criticize. IT is a SHARED system accessed by everyone on the committee.

How did the Senate staffer "steal" the memos when they were accessible to all members of the committee and staff.

[jmstein7]

A better analogy is a coat closet in an office.

Everyone can use it. Someone accidentally forgets to lock one of the closet doors and leaves an illegal gun in the closet.

A co-worker goes to put his coat away in the closet (which is not locked), and, in turn, finds the gun.

The guy reports his findings to the cops.

[VRWC_minion]

How would this logic apply to an unlocked car?

Gov't documents are not copyrighted and by their nature cannot be copyrighted therefore they are not private property. The issue isn't the taking of property like your analogy of the borrowing of an auto. The issue is public disclosure of documents that may or may not have been privileged.

The question of disclosure is turned upside down. As they are servants of our gov't we have the right to full disclosure unless the gov;t has a compelling interest to keep it from us. The burden of proof that these doc's must be kept secret is upon their authors, not the whistle blowers. Any other perspective is contrary to an open government that our system requires for it to work.

[BushisTheMan]

Taking what is not yours is generally considered theft.

Personally, I consider any elected official as someone who works for me, part of the public. If my senators/reps are doing something illegal, all bets are off and they should go to jail. ...no matter how the information was obtained. I consider the leaker a hero.

[snowrip]

An unlocked car is still private property... to take something from it you must enter the car. These files were shared/public access, rather than taken.

[woerm]

yup,

when a car is recovered here in TX if the keys are in it and it was unlocked, (no sign of forced entry) it's not called stolen.

friend found this out hard way back in 88-89 I think it was.

he was out major $ cleaning up the mess from the joyride...

Insurance CO said hey, it wasn't stolen dude, its non collision damage (hideous deductable)

r