Brian P. Corcoran v. Michael Sullivan

POSNER, CMef Judge.

TMs unusual appeal asks us to reverse the demal of relief sought by a state prisoner who claims that Ms crime was privileged by federal copyright law. Brian Corcoran was hired by a consulting firm to write computer programs that would enable the processing of data owned by the firm. His work was full of errors, and he became concerned that he wouldn’t be paid. So, in anticipatory revenge, he installed in one of the programs a software time bomb that was set to go off, deleting the programs from the firm’s computer’s memory, at a specified date and time if he activated the…