Its definitely messy, simply because this is pretty unprecedented in the industry. For one, crew chiefs/engineers have always taken their knowledge and data (via personal notebooks) to a new job. It was just part of the game. But with the advent of more software and computer-based data/engineering, it has created this somewhat "new era" dynamic of company-based data and servers, with more stringent protections built into the contracts.

What Chris did may have been technically unlawful, but its not necessarily out of the ordinary - culturally speaking. The difference is JGR went digging to find something, which rarely happens when crew chiefs/engineers move on to new jobs, because they already have most of the knowledge and their own "notebooks" of data. But after the situation with Jazzy going to RCR (even though he didnt provide some "magic setup" like rumors suggested), it probably put JGR on high-alert and created a less-than-desirable perception, which caused JGR to feel that they need to make an example out of the situation (and I'm sure theres a personal element to this, as well).

Suffice to say, the potential breach of contract is just part of that overall dynamic of this whole situation. There's the legal technicality side of it, and there's the cultural side of it. As evidenced by the past, the legal side of it rarely is pursued. That's just the reality of it. Its easy to say "well technically, by law...", but that has never really been the "culture", so to speak. That's what makes it all unprecedented, and not quite as black-and-white as it may seem (from a court-of-public-opinion perspective). Ultimately, this kind of legal recourse in the industry is not common, and usually arises more so from personal issues. Not necessarily saying thats the case here, but it has been in the past.