RC4 Legal Issues

[hughes@ah.com (Eric Hughes)]

Some general words on trade secrets.

Trade secret law is eminently sensible.  It grows out of common law
and the merits and facts of real situations regarding information.
Trade secret law does not attempt to reverse the disclosure of
information, which would be contrary to the properties of information.
It does not require that people forget something they have learned.
Nor does trade secret law force tribute upon those who use that
knowledge, as patent law does.  It does not restrict the transmission
of information, as copyright law does.

If, however, you tell someone you're going to keep a secret, and they
compensate you for that promise (i.e. consideration in a contract),
then the law expects you to uphold your promise or make good the harm
that you've caused.  Lacking an agreement, the holder of the agreement
has no recourse.

In a cryptographic world, the model of trade secret law is worth
considering.  It concerns only information and agreements between
individuals.

Eric