Orphaned Response

[bsteve at gorgo.UUCP]

/* ---------- "Re: Are any parts of UNIX in public" ---------- */
In article <755 at ccird2.UUCP> rb at ccird2.UUCP (Rex Ballard) writes:
>If Cornell had a non-disclosure agreement and let a student or
>faculty member who had not signed a similar agreement see the source,
>Cornel would have been in violation of their AT&T contract.  If
>a "hacker" broke into Cornel's computer and "ftp'd" the source
>to his PC, the only protection would be a copyright notice.

This is not entirely true. A piece of software whether or not it
is copyrighted may also be represented as a trade secret. Theft
of a trade secret (though not a crime per se) is a tort. Likewise,
the use of a trade secret for profit is also a tort or willful and
knowing transmission of a trade secret to another person is a tort.
Its a good way to get sued for `TOO MUCH MONEY' :-(

For this reason, things like the C beautifier (Swiped from a V6
system somewhere and redistributed by the C users group) is still
proprietary code. Just sell it and see :-)

   Steve (not really a lawyer) Blasingame  / Oklahoma City
   ihnp4!attmail!sblasingame