🚀 go-pugleaf

David Sternlight (strnlght@netcom.com) wrote:

: Second, something doesn't become public domain simply because it's
: published. Instead of asserting, I suggest Rubin post the specific
: language of the law about 'public domain' as I have about software.

It is not only "the law" as originally written that must be taken into
consideration here, but also court rulings (which have the effect of
interpreting the law and sometimes even changing radically the original intent)
that have even the slightest bearing on the issue.  While it is true that
publishing something doesn't automatically make it public domain, in some
cases it may seriously weaken any claims of patent infringement.  Not all,
of course, otherwise nothing would ever be published.  :)

On proprietary non-disclosed material, the restrictions on disclosure must be
fairly exacting, else one loses the protection afforded by declaring
something a "trade secret".  Consider the Datapoint case of several years
back.  Two programmers who had worked for Datapoint walked out with listings
of Datapoint DOS, rekeyed it, then sold it.  The courts said that because
Datapoint hadn't taken steps to protect their copyrighted material (like
restricting access to listings and source code) they lost the protections
afforded herein.

I wasn't there at the time, but was told this by a Datapoint corporate
attorney.
-- 
Ed Carp			erc@apple.com, erc@saturn.upl.com	801/538-0177

Who and what would you be if you went beyond your deepest fears?