[josephg]

> How would a previous employer know what a former employee is telling their current employer...

They don't. What I learned while working for your company isn't your company's property any more. Good ideas almost always eventually spread in our industry. And I think thats a good thing for software as a whole!

You can protect your data, and your code. But you can't really stop someone quitting a job at your company, working somewhere else and reimplementing a software system that worked well. It might take years to do it, but probably not decades.

I honestly think this is a pretty good tradeoff. It means if you build some software, you have head start, but not an impenetrable wall. For someone to compete, it'll take a lot of time and money just to catch up with where you are today. So it'll be hard to do but possible. This leaves the door open for any incumbent to be outcompeted in the market if they stop doing good work.

And thats a good thing! Competition is painful, but it pushes us to make better products for our users. Ultimately thats better for everyone.

[devnullbrain]

>You can protect your data, and your code. But you can't really stop someone quitting a job at your company, working somewhere else and reimplementing a software system that worked well. It might take years to do it, but probably not decades.

I don't even think this case is undesirable. If we were welders, it would be absurd to be prevented from using a welding technique we learned on the job at a new employer. System design is just a technique.

[jen20]

If it were a genuinely innovative new technique, it should be patented, which will grant exclusivity for some period in exchange for it _not_ being a trade secret.

[jandrewrogers]

Patents have become effectively unenforceable in many domains. The retreat to trade secrets is a reaction to this. Eschewing patents in favor of trade secrets is a common strategy these days. Ironically, this was the situation patents were intended to prevent, were they enforceable.

[RajT88]

> What I learned while working for your company isn't your company's property any more. Good ideas almost always eventually spread in our industry.

You are only thinking about code. Imagine knowing all the dirty secrets about how your company screwed customers. I have seen employment contracts forbidding working for a customer, in addition to competitors and in addition to an NDA.

[josephg]

Again, that dirty laundry eventually being aired is a good thing for our industry. There need to be costs to being a scumbag, even if the cost is just to your reputation.

[RajT88]

Not saying it isn't; just that there's another angle outside of software.

The "Front Page" ethics test is probably the best one I've heard: "What would people think if what was being done was reported on the front page of the NY Times or other major news outlet?"