corwin@talcott.harvard.edu (-David C. Kovar) (04/05/89)
>I have not yet seen anything posted that should have been bound by a >non-disclosure agreement... >So, what was so awful? Evidently, I do not wish to incite people to >divulge confidential information. ... >[[ I think the biggest concern was over the message sent in by David >Kovar....I >suspect that someone (*not* Mr. Kovar) told someone else in violation of >the agreement, who then told someone else, etc., until someone in the >chain asked Mr. Kovar if it was true. He naturally went to the net for >confirmation. --wnl ]] Mr. Kovar has certainly learned his lesson. wln's estimation of what happened is quite correct. A student where I worked walked in a few months back and asked "Have you heard about the Sun machines with the following characteristics and names?" Without thinking, I posted to Sun-Spots asking about it. My manager ended up spending a lot of time on the phone with various people at Sun mere hours after Sun-Spots hit the net, I was exchanging mail with more people at Sun, and a friend of mine at Sun sent me mail stating that my name had come up with regards to a non-disclosure violation. By not thinking about the situation I jeopardized Harvard's position vis a vis Sun, wasted a lot of people's time, and disclosed information that Sun wanted kept quiet but was willing to trust some people with. I may be "innocent" in the legal sense but not innocent of stupidity. For anyone else who might divulge non-disclosure information while thinking "This can't hurt anyone." or "This wasn't really covered by the agreement." I have one piece of advice: Don't. The repercussions are not worth the potential improvement in the knowledge base. And it *can* hurt a lot of people, you included. -David Kovar