[A2k] Copyright Is An Exception To The Public Domain | Techdirt

[Mark Harris]

On 27/01/10 3:53 PM, Paul Lehto wrote:

> The exception to the general rule as to intellectual property is trade
> secrets, making it a dangerous form of IP.  The IP rights in trade
> secrets, which are nothing more than "information" in which reasonable
> attempts are made to preserve secrecy, are potentially infinite in
> duration.

There are no "IP rights" in trade secrets. You keep it secret, or you
don't. You can do that contractually, with employees or partners.

If it gets revealed, you have no comeback other than whether the  manner
of obtaining the secret was legal. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_secrets :

"The lack of formal protection, however, means that a third party is not
prevented from independently duplicating and using the secret
information once it is discovered"

> Trade secrets are a form of IP essentially created at the will of the
> corporation, and  potentially last forever, making it a dangerous form
> of IP, and it can often co-exist with patents or copyrights in some
> contexts such as software.
>
Untrue. There is nothing particularly new or dangerous about trade
secrets. They have existed since craftsmen started differentiating their
work from their peers by applying their own discoveries. While they are
used by corporations, it is not an exclusive arrangement.

By not formally protecting these things, they a) don't have to expose
them to their peers and b) don't have their control limited by time.
There is nothing dangerous in that. What is dangerous is in trying to
protect that in law through tools like the USTA
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Trade_Secrets_Act,) a non-Federal,
'model law', and the Economic Espionage Act
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Espionage_Act_of_1996)

The social trade off for copyright, trademarks and patents is, as you
note, that they do expire, that is, they get protected UNTIL they enter
the public domain.

To provide such protection to material that will never enter the domain
is a monstrous perversion of your Constitution.  You should do something
about that.

Regards

Mark Harris
http://tracs.co.nz/gripping-hand/