Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request From: montanaro@sprite.crd.ge.com Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: Re: new product rumors Keywords: Miscellaneous Message-ID: Date: 24 Apr 89 03:04:18 GMT References: <890302023213.283417@DOCKMASTER.ARPA> <797@ethz.UUCP> Sender: usenet@rice.edu Organization: GE Corporate Research & Development, Schenectady, NY Lines: 32 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu Original-Date: 5 Apr 89 16:20:19 GMT X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 241, message 13 of 15 mcvax!ethz!marti@uunet.uu.net (Robert Marti) writes: ...By having you sign an agreement, they are basically just covering their asses in case they don't/can't ship as planned so that no customer or competitor can sue them on the basis of whatever information was revealed. Whoa, there! Sun and most other companies have much to lose by early release of proprietary information. In a highly competitive environment, changes in release dates by just a couple of months or weeks can translate into large gains or losses of lots of market leverage. If a product is being tested under non-disclosure, even the acknowledgement that the product exists is extremely useful information for competitors. More damaging can be information regarding performance, bugs, etc. Alpha and beta test software is often released to priveleged customers to wring out bugs (especially true for alpha test software). Great damage to a company's credibility can be done by divulging information about pre-release software. People reading the information (possibly taken out of context by a competitor) may infer that the released product is full of bugs, or performs badly. If vendors want information leaked in order to put distance between themselves and the information, they can give it to so-called "market analysts". If juicy enough, it will wind up on the front page of many trade rags. If they really don't care about information being transmitted (or actually want it divulged), they wouldn't have made you sign the non-disclosure in the first place. -- Skip Montanaro (montanaro@sprite.crd.ge.com)