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