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From: scott@sage.uchicago.edu (Scott Deerwester)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Rumor problems...
Summary: Non-disclosure means never saying *anything*
Message-ID: <1990Aug20.153752.21652@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 20 Aug 90 15:37:52 GMT
References: <1990Aug19.190303.23788@portia.Stanford.EDU>
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Reply-To: scott@sage.uchicago.edu (Scott Deerwester)
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In-Reply-To: declan@portia.Stanford.EDU (Declan McCullagh)

In article <1990Aug19.190303.23788@portia.Stanford.EDU>, declan@portia (Declan McCullagh) writes:
>In an earlier article, Peter Deutsch (peterd@opus.cs.mcgill.ca) writes...
> 
>>I have to defend myself against the claim that I somehow
>>skated close to the edge of my non-disclosure agreement
>>with NeXT. Yes, I like NeXT machines and I follow this
>>group regularly (some of my distractors would say
>>religiously! :-) I have seen all the speculation re: the
>>new machines and I have not answered because to discuss
>>material I have received from NeXT to confirm such
>>speculation would be such a violation. On the other hand,
>>I _am_ free to pass on rumours, reports etc that are
>>general knowledge or in the public domain, not originating
>>from NeXT.
>
>I'm curious as to what you would the legal implications of this action
>would be.  Let's say, for the sake of argument, that NeXT is going to
>introduce a neon pink 1' diameter sphere with a 25 MHz 68040 later
>this year.  Let's also say that you know about it.  If a third party
>developer leaks this information and you read about it on CompuServe,
>then post it to comp.sys.next, what happens?  Who's responsible?
>

I've always assumed that once you've signed a non-disclosure, you give
up your right to participate in (especially public!) discussions or
speculation on what the company's going to do NeXT.. er, next.  The
point is, *you* agree that *you* won't talk about it.  Doesn't matter
who has found out what; *you* can't join in.  The reason is exactly
what Declan states; if it's "just a rumor" that you pass on, *after*
having seen the actual machine, people are likely to conclude that the
rumor is a lot more than that.

You note that people from NeXT don't, um.. "speculate" much about what
NeXT is going to do.  Signing a non-disclosure means that you won't
either.  I mean, what would you think if Avi posted an article saying,
"Gee, this is just a rumor, but [so and so] reports that NeXT will be
shipping pizza boxes in September!"  It would certainly mean a lot
more than if *I* said so!  Saying that you'll only repeat things that
you've heard others say doesn't work, because the fact that you (who
presumably know what the straight story is) say so too gives away
something to the great unwashed that you promised you wouldn't give
away.
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