A Manhattan judge said that an accounting firm misappropriated a wealth manager’s cloud-based client list, in a case that illustrates the ambiguity that can surround how companies control third party storage.
Manhattan Federal Judge Robert Sweet said Weiser Capital Management LLC improperly took data from its former employee Debra Schatzki when it cut off her access to a database that contained her client business, after she was fired in 2010. But the judge stopped short of issuing a summary judgment in the case, which was first reported by the New York Daily News. The case goes to trial next month. An attorney for Weiser declined to comment on the case. “We don’t want to litigate through the media,” he said.
While centuries old law on information ownership still applies to new technologies, the cloud can sometimes muddy the distinctions of who has control the data, say legal observers.
