copyright intellectual-property data-protection data-ownership
File copying and deletion before employee leaves to competitor
<p>This may be a mundane question but I cannot find an answer for it, as the law is not my area of expertise.</p>

<p>If an employee is under contract and copies files (on mass to a personal cloud storage) for the purpose of using them at a competitor, in the future, despite that their contract says the files are the companies property, they have clearly broken contracts and the law.</p>

<p>However, if the individual discovers this is breaking their contract and deletes the file before handing in their notice, <strong>are they still breaking the law if the files have not been shared or used?</strong> </p>

<p>UK and EU law</p>

<p>It is still "breaking the law". Any unauthorized copying is a violation of copyright law. It is presumably also a breach of contract. The copyright restriction is not limited to "and then using or sharing". Nor are sanctions resulting from breach of contract limited by the fact that you did not "use or share". The "did not use or share" consideration would only be relevant in terms of any monetary damages the company could seek. I assume when you say that the person discovered that this is breaking the law, it either means that he was unaware that copyright law exists, or was unaware that the contract prohibited copying company IP. In both cases, ignorance of the law is no defense: you are expected to know copyright law, you are expected to have read and understood the terms of the contract before agreeing to it.</p>
