Leo Simons <mail <at> leosimons.com> writes: > Since the JDK stuff is now all mostly out in the public, and most NDAs > are effectively voided once the information they are meant to protect is > available through other means not involving an NDA.
Missing the cue by just a few days, Sun Microsystems proudly unveiled a new license to go with the 1.6 "Mustang" beta, and it contains the following, explicit talk about trade secrets, and confidentiality agreements that seems to fit the recently discussed NDA issues perfectly like a fist a glove: "7.0 CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION 7.1 For purposes of this Agreement, "Confidential Information" means: (i) business and technical information and any source code or binary code, which Sun discloses to Licensee related to Licensed Software; (ii) Licensee's feedback based on Licensed Software; and (iii) the terms, conditions, and existence of this Agreement." 7.1.(iii) is the Mustang Fight Club rule: The first rule of the Mustang licensee club: you don't talk about the Mustang licensee club. Fortunately, I have not accepted the license, so I can make fun of it. "[...] Licensee's obligations regarding Confidential Information will expire no less than five (5) years from the date of receipt of the Confidential Information, except for Sun source code which will be protected in perpetuity." A perpetual NDA on the included Sun source code with each purchase, yum. "Licensee agrees that Licensed Software contains Sun trade secrets." Et voila, explicit acknowledgement of trade secrets. Taken from http://java.sun.com/javase/6/jdk-6-beta-license.txt As long as Sun Microsystems believes to have some trade secrets in there, that are worthy of such draconian measures, I don't think it's wise to assume that NDAs with Sun have become invalid without proof to the contrary. The 1.6 beta license has a lot of other nice, comical gems, and is a wonderful piece in the finest tradition of the earlier works from the same software license publishing house. Use with care, avoid excessive exposure, etc. cheers, dalibor topic
