In an apparent case of first impression, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania found that electronic data is not “other property” under the state’s economic loss doctrine.
In Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland v. International Business Machines Corp., Magistrate Judge J. Andrew Smyser said, “Unlike tangible and separable physical property, data entered into the computer is entered into the computer to become in a significant way a part of the computer, and to be in various ways transformed by the computer.”
