“Doesn’t have to be if it’s their Intellectual Property on it. “
But how do they know/prove that it is their intellectual property on it?
You need probable cause for a search. They can’t just go fishing around someone’s hard drive to see what they can find.
But apparently bragging that one is a skilled computer programmer is enough probable cause for an ill informed judge.
The Judge decided to err on the side of evidence preservation, which I’m not sure is a good idea. The act of “erring” might be evidence of the Judge being an idiot, so we’ll see. I bet most Judges are not learned in the ways of “hacking” vs “cracking.”