A bit of industrial espionage

Reporters without borders tells of the case of Bruno Thomas, a reporter with the Paris-based car magazine Auto Plus.

The magazine published pictures of future models of Renault cars and as the site reports

Thomas was taken into custody on 15 July after watching plain-clothes police from Versailles search his office at Auto Plus headquarters in the 15th district of Paris

and

he was charged with “complicity in breach of trust,” “unauthorised publication or reproduction in writing, drawing or any other form in violation of the laws and regulations relating to the property of the author, and complicity therein,” “unauthorised publication of an intellectual product in violation of authorship rights, and complicity therein,” “acquiescing in inducements to corrupt and complicity therein” and “revealing a manufacturing secret, and complicity therein.”