robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (03/26/84)
(Bear in mind, I'm not a lawyer. The following is pretty accurate for the law in the USA, as of the mid 1970's; there may have been changes.) I'm responding to a point raised about the licensing of UNIX source. Since many people seeing source have not signed nondisclosure agreements, is it really a trade secret, or is it in the public domain? Here is my answer: In order to protect a trade secret, a company must treat the guarded information as a secret to be kept from honest outsiders. The test is NOT whether the data is in fact secret; the test is, did the company take steps so that no honest person would come to possess (and feel that he could use) the data? The owners of UNIX can pass that test by the following: - sign nondiscolsure agreements with their own employees - sign " " with the companies they sell UNIX to. - keep source listings and copies of UNIX in secure places at their offices. - include warnings in the listings that the data is proprietary In addition, it is possible that they MUST prosecute flagrant violations (by anybody) of the nondisclosure agreements to show good faith, but I don't know if this is a requirement. Now, most of the people who get access to UNIX without signing nondisclosure agreements work for, or are students at, organizations that have signed non-disclosure agreements. In general, the failure of licensees to enforce their license agreements would not validate the trade secret status. These failures would simply expose the licensees to litigation. I conclude that you cannot treat UNIX source as nonsecret just because you are aware of people who seem to have unrestricted access to it. There is a serious problem however, which could lead (through litigation) to UNIX being declared nonsecret. This is the failure of the source listings and programs to state that they are proprietary. An honest person who picks up source listings should be warned, on the cover page, that unless they are authorized, they may not read the contents. This warning is hard to find on a UNIX system, and it suggests that the owners of UNIX are not in fact treating it as a trade secret. - Toby Robison allegra!eosp1!robison decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison princeton!eosp1!robison
jbf@ccieng5.UUCP (Jens Bernhard Fiederer) (03/29/84)
The trade secret status is in no danger of validation. I think "vitiation" was the intended word. Azhrarn -- Reachable as ....allegra![rayssd,rlgvax]!ccieng5!jbf Or just address to 'native of the night' and trust in the forces of evil.