Are depositions confidential?

A reader sent along a story about a federal case he was involved in years ago.

One case involved a theft of a company's intellectual property, and another involved encroachment by a competitor. When depositions were taken, they were made available only to the attorneys.

As a client, he could go to his attorney's office and read the depositions there, in the presence of his attorney. He could not copy them.

He became aware that one of the opposing attorneys was leaving confidential documents out "in the open", where his client could copy them. The offending attorneys and their clients were caught at it, and the court sanctioned them for their actions.

Has Judge Mahoney issued any ruling on the leak of the Milliman deposition by Sheriff Nygren? It's my understanding that Sheriff Nygren made an Affidavit that he told Undersheriff Zinke to give a copy of the Milliman deposition to Jose Rivera. Undersheriff Zinke and Jose Rivera are not parties to the civil rights lawsuit by Zane Seipler against the sheriff and the department, and so they never should have seen the deposition and definitely should never have had access to a copy of it.

If this is incorrect, I invite Sheriff Nygren or his attorney, James Sotos, to correct me on this, and I shall quickly retract my statements about my current understanding. They both know how to reach me.