Scott, have someone contact Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola and ask them their opinion on the subject?
Also see if they can contact the lady serving prison time and solicit her opinion as well.
As I said - it depends on the document and the use to which it is put. Certainly, EVERYONE involved in the COKE thing knew the documents in question were COKE trade secrets. (If I were a Pepsi guy, I would have been afraid I was being entrapped in some sort of a sting.)
In the case of the technical manual I described above - the manual was widely published and distributed - about 25,000 copies a year for at least ten years I was associated with the client.
Before we speculate further, let's find out WHY these competitor documents are in hand and to what purpose.
I agree with everyone that these are "probably" not anything to be put into a Controlled Document system, but might be kept as reference material . I am aware of dozens of organizations that have copies of the Quality Manuals of customers, suppliers, and competitors which have been used as reference material in creating their own Quality Manual. Certainly, some organizations might have need to include customer and supplier Quality Manuals in their controlled document system, but I really can't think of a good reason to put a competitor's manual in the system. IF, however, an organization makes one-off copies of products which are no longer produced by a competitor, then the original design and production documents might be crucial to its controlled document system. This happens frequently in the aerospace field for replacement parts for aging aircraft.