Free Speech and Trade Secrets
beSpacific: DVD Code Copying Decision from CA Supreme Court.
Sabrina I. Pacifici has brought together several useful links about the recent California Supreme Court decision that says that the First Amendment right to free speech does not give anyone the right to put trade secrets on the Web.
This decision is an important one
for libraries because of the continued movement to lock up information content behind contractual and trade secret law and put information outside of copyright.
Another very useful review of this issue can be found in
“Legally Speaking: Trade Secrets vs. Free Speech”
ByPamela Samuelson, Communications of the ACM (v.46, no. 6, June 2003), available
here in pre-print form.
More coverage of the case in
Court Rules That Trade Secrets Can Outweigh Free Speech
BySteve Lohr, NY Times
August 26, 2003, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final
Section C; Page 1; Column 2; Business/Financial Desk