During his court appearance, an Australian man involved in the release of internal Tesla documents likened the situation to the “Watergate Affair.” Keith Leech, a 75-year-old retired electrical engineer, made an appearance in Federal Court on Thursday, where the car company requested an extension of the order preventing him from sharing leaked files on the internet.
Last month, the electric car company initiated legal action against a man from New South Wales, claiming that he improperly used confidential information that he acquired indirectly from a former Tesla employee named Lukasz Krupski.
These documents reportedly consist of technical reports, customer complaints, logs of vehicle repairs, meeting notes, and product testing and analysis documentation. Tesla’s counsel, Luke Merrick S.C., contended that Leech had no valid justification for sharing the purportedly confidential and copyrighted material.
“If Leech wants to espouse public views about my client, there are lawful ways to do so,” he said.
According to court documents, Tesla requested immediate court orders on January 5 to force Leech to take down content he reportedly posted online, disclose the recipients of the files, and prohibit any further use of the material.
According to Merrick, the evidence indicates that Leech removed the documents from the internet, but he allegedly made threats to repost them. On February 15, he allegedly wrote on social media, “You may just have to risk being contemptuous of Elon Musk and post them again.”.
“I’ve had to STFU for the moment, but it won’t last.”.
During the court proceedings, Leech revealed that he operated a website for four years where he detailed purported issues with Tesla’s vehicles and submitted over 5,000 complaints to regulatory bodies in Australia, the European Union, and the United States.
“For some reason, Tesla and Elon Musk are being granted absolutely extraordinary leniency… That is the reason I went to social media,” he said.
“The urgency of this matter, where lives are at risk every day, necessitates me making this information available.”
He likened the document leak to the infamous “Watergate Affair” and contended that copyright law should not hinder him from alerting the public.
Last year, a former Tesla technician in Norway, Krupski, shared thousands of internal documents with the German newspaper Handelsblatt. The newspaper published a series of articles focusing on Tesla’s braking and self-driving software.
Justice Craig Dowling has decided to extend the prohibition on Leech, stating that there is a valid reason to uphold the orders. A court proceeding will address Tesla’s claim against Leech for alleged copyright and confidentiality breaches at a later time.
Leech has not been accused of any criminal activity.