[dvd-discuss] Your Editorial on Trade Secrets - Unbelievable!

[microlenz(at)earthlink.net]

Mr Bursky,

I read your editorial this afternoon "Trade Secrets Under Attack" 
with disbelief.  For the editor of a a respected trade magazine to 
present an editorial based upon misconceptions regarding trade 
secrets, patents, and intellectual property to the electronics 
industry is almost unbelievable. 

First, you state that "trade secrets don't receive the same 
protection under law as patents do, and there may be no legal 
protection if no patents are violated" OBVIOUSLY That's the 
purpose of patents. Disclose the invention and get a monopoly for a 
LIMITED time. That's in the Constitution of the United States. And 
if you would choose to read the discussions regarding that clause 
by the "Founding Fathers" you might find that the preservation of 
trade secrets by the government was precisely what they sought to 
avoid. (Despite these discussion taking place over 200yrs ago, 
they are still relevant since they created an enduring system of 
governing by those principles and should be heeded.). 

Second you imply that the courts have a power to protect trade 
secrets. This is utterly wrong. Trade secrets are NOT protected 
under the law - only the misappropriation of them. Reverse 
engineering a "trade secret" has been a common practice for 
centuries and is legally protected.

Third, you imply that there is something wrong that they might 
"disrupt the economics of major media corporations". So did Swift's 
refrigerated  railroad car disrupt the economics of the meatpacking 
and railroad industries! So did the railroad disrupt the canal. So did 
the refrigerator disrupt the ice trade. For an magazine for engineers 
to write this is almost unbelievable!  

Lastly, the most egregious error you make is that you seem to 
believe that figuring out what someone else has done and doing it 
better is some sort of crime. It's called reverse engineering and has 
been a part of the engineering profession since the human race 
started putting making tools. Trade secrets are NOT intellectual 
property protected by the law for those who reverse engineer them.

The safeguarding of the electronics industry cannot be achieved by 
hoarding as you seem to believe but my continued creation of new 
technology and ideas in a free and open environment


Suscriber 369062690 

M.Rolenz