Is it a crime to trade stocks on inside information?  Sometimes.  Not as often as the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan has alleged.  Christopher Matthews has this article in the WSJ on yesterday's decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in United States v. Newman and Chiasson.

The appeals-court panel ruled that, in order to be found guilty of insider trading, a defendant must know a tip was illegally disclosed in exchange for a reward of "some consequence." The court also dismissed prosecutors' contention that career advice or friendship constituted a reward, saying that, under that logic, "practically anything would qualify."