software ethics

[lauren at rand-unix.ARPA]

If someone came up with a new way of doing top-down parsing that
took substantial work on their part and represented a potential
commercial advantage, I see nothing wrong with their placing it
under trade-secret protections, given the lack of very useful
protection alternatives.

If someone invented a neat new way to do process scheduling and wanted 
to protect it, once again, given the lack of alternatives to prevent
ripoffs, it also might be a good candidate for trade secret
protection.  This doesn't say that nobody else is allowed to
invent other methods of doing process scheduling and use their
independently created scheduling creations as they see fit.

David, if you'd like to contribute to a discussion regarding
software ethics and how best to protect the works of individuals
and companies who create software from illicit sales and
information theft, I'd be glad to welcome your input.  But let's
do this either in direct mail or on a different list.  I offer
the other readers of this message the same invitation.  These
issues are far ranging and need to be discussed, but not in
this list which now probably represents more traffic in most
ARPA mailboxes than all the other lists put together.

Anyone interested in these discussions, please let me know 
(by direct mail) and I'll see about starting up a list.  Please
do *not* reply-to or CC: such messages to this list.

--Lauren--