Do SCOs versions of UNIX contain trade secrets?
Trade secrecy is like virginity: once lost, it can never be restored. If someone has disclosed a trade secret, even if the disclosure was illegal and improper, the information is no longer a trade secret. Only the one who improperly disclosed it is liable for damages. Others may use the information freely, except of course as that usage may be otherwise restricted by copyright law or other considerations. It would be difficult for SCO to claim any trade secrets in the UNIX code base that it inherited from AT&T. Versions of this source code have circulated widely for years, much of it in book form. Caldera itself has published one version of the source code under a BSD-style license. The principles and architecture of the AT&T-derived UNIX kernel are described in books and taught in University classes. It is possible for SCO to claim trade secret status for additions and modifications to UNIX that were made after receiving the ancestral source code. Such changes could have been made by
Trade secrecy is like virginity: once lost, it can never be restored. If someone has disclosed a trade secret, even if the disclosure was illegal and improper, the information is no longer a trade secret. Only the one who improperly disclosed it is liable for damages. Others may use the information freely, except of course as that usage may be otherwise restricted by copyright law or other considerations. It would be difficult for SCO to claim any trade secrets in the UNIX code base that it inherited from AT&T. Versions of this source code have circulated widely for years, much of it in book form. Caldera itself has published one version of the source code under a BSD-style license. The principles and architecture of the AT&T-derived UNIX kernel are described in books and taught in University classes. It is possible for SCO to claim trade secret status for additions and modifications to UNIX that were made after receiving the ancestral source code. Such changes could have been made by
