Obviously, if the information is sold by its copyright holder, there is no violation of the law. But if the information is sold by a person who does not have the right to do so, then by law the seller and, under certain conditions, the buyer are considered guilty. However, it is extremely rare to prove the guilt of the person who made the purchase. Let's see why this is happening.
Buyer: degree of responsibility
From the point of view of the law, the buyer may be liable under Art. 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for active actions that he performs to obtain information belonging to third parties. But in practice, it is possible to prove this fact in very rare cases.
For example, in the case of the sale of a company's customer base, most often the information is transferred as a file without any watermarks, headers or tags that confirm that the database belongs to a particular organization. In this case, the buyer may not know that he is buying property from third parties. If it is not possible to prove otherwise in court, the buyer is considered innocent.
If the purchaser receives a copy of the software or data with the appropriate labeling, it is possible to prove that he acted with full knowledge of his involvement in the theft of information. In practice, such cases are rare. Therefore, the main efforts to protect information lie in the plane of working with company employees who have access to trade secrets.
Seller's responsibility
To prevent employees from succumbing to the temptation to use certain information for sale, it is imperative to notify them of their responsibility for such actions. Penalties for the misuse of information protected by trade secrets are prescribed in the employment contract.
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From a legal point of view, if you fail to prove that the employee was notified that certain data is a commercial secret, as well as responsibility for their disclosure, no court will find such an employee guilty.
Part 5 of Art. 11 of the Federal Law of July 29, 2004 N 98-FZ (as amended on April 18, 2018) "On commercial secrets")
Losses caused by an employee or a person who terminated employment with an employer shall not be reimbursed if the disclosure of information constituting a commercial secret occurred due to non-observance by the employer measures to ensure the regime of commercial secrets, actions of third parties or force majeure.
If all the nuances associated with a trade secret are spelled out in the employment contract, an administrative penalty (fine) is allowed by law, and if the losses due to his actions turned out to be significant, the liability becomes criminal.
Part 2 of Art. 14 of the Federal Law of July 29, 2004 N 98-FZ (as amended on April 18, 2018) "On commercial secrets") An employee who, in connection with the performance of his job duties, has gained access to information constituting a commercial secret, the owners of which are the employer and his counterparties , in the event of deliberate or careless disclosure of this information in the absence of corpus delicti in the actions of such an employee, bears disciplinary responsibility in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.
Administrative Code of the Russian Federation Article 13.14. Disclosure of information with limited access
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If a customer base is sold without any additional data, for example, marks in the file about unloading from a specific CRM or other information described above, it is almost impossible to prove ownership in court.
Let's sum up
As a specialist in the field of working with commercial secrets, I strongly recommend including clauses on non-disclosure of commercial secrets in the employment contract and determining liability for violation. At the very least, it disciplines employees.
If a person realizes that after selling information for 30 or even 100 thousand rubles, he risks getting, at best, dismissal under article (clause 6 of article 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation) and lost business reputation, and at worst - a large fine and criminal article, most likely he will not go to such actions.
Also, do not forget about technical methods of protecting information. Here, on Habré, many participants know better than me how you can prevent unauthorized copying of data or provide a copy with additional tags that will help prove ownership. You shouldn't skimp on such software solutions. Any problem is easier to prevent than to correct the consequences. Moreover, we all understand that the company can incur irreparable losses, and in court you will receive relatively small compensation, of course, if you can prove the fact of theft of information protected by commercial secrets.
There are many more subtleties related to information security. If readers are interested in this topic, I will definitely continue the series of publications and consider various aspects in more detail.