Steve Furlong (2004-02-13 22:34Z) wrote:
Eric is correct in his reply to MV's article. Joe Programmer isn't necessarily obligated not to look at leaked trade secrets, but if he implements anything remotely related to the leaked secret, he and his employers or customers are subject to being sued for using the secret.
Case law on point? I don't think that is true at all. Trade secrets that are leaked are no longer trade secrets. I think the issue would be copyright and/or patent violation. I seem to recall something about copyright periods for trade secrets not beginning until the secret is released, a similar situation being patents issued to the NSA or other TLAs... they only start ticking when the patent is revealed. So trade secrets offer a copyright advantage. Obviously, if you can locate the persons who released a trade secret, you can probably sue them because they're probably under contract. But suing random people who happened to have looked at trade secrets and implemented similar non-patented code? Sounds shaky. -- No humanitarian endeavor can ever fill the void left by my past crimes. -Sloane