Re: I2O specs available! (was: GGI People Read This (fwd))
Theodore Y. Ts'o (tytso@MIT.EDU)
Sun, 20 Jul 1997 22:24:24 -0400
The rule with trade secrets is that if you screw up somehow and let it
out, it's no longer a trade secret. Once someone who isn't bound by any
NDA or other legal agreement gets a hold of it, it's all over. (That's
the big drawback of trying to use trade secrets to protect intellectual
property, instead of patents or copyrights. On the other hand, as long
as you keep it a secret, trade secrets never expire; the Coca-Cola
recipe is an example of a trade secret that has been kept for a long,
long time.)
NOT that I would be giving anyone any legal advice or encouragement to
do this, but I'll observe that it would be entertaining of some person
outside the U.S. (preferably in a country whose courts aren't terribly
sympathetic to the U.S.) were to post the document which they found on
the ftp server on Usenet. This would pretty much guarantee that the I2O
spec would be *everywhere*, and if it were done right, the I2O
organization would have a very hard time finding who to sue.... (even if
they didn't have a leg to stand on legally, they could make life
miserable for someone.)
- Ted