reply to post by Legalizer
Under most U.S. states' laws (sorry if I cannot speak for the rest of the world) a trade secret is
i) any knowledge that has *ANY* value
ii) that is subject to reasonable efforts to keep it secret.
Fraternity secrets have some value as they help build comraderie, are a source of amusement for fraternity members, and have some sentimental values
for fraternity members. They are usually subject to reasonable efforts of secrecy because fraternities require their members to make an oath of
secrecy and ritual books are usually kept under lock and key. The bar is set low for taking reasonable efforts to maintain a secret. An organization
need not have Fort Knox protection of its secrets. Even if from time to time members of a particular fraternity are known to carelessly leave their
ritual books out in public for somebody to see the law will still consider their secrets subject to reasonable efforts of secrecy because for the most
part they tried to keep their ritual secret.
Under most U.S. states' laws, misappropriation of a trade secret occurs when you circumvent reasonable measures to maintain secrecy, divulge
information which one knows or should know was subject to secrecy. In the case of a fraternity ritual being posted online, the website should know it
was subject to secrecy.
Of course, First Ammendment freedom of speech rights come into play too. The big legal question is how free speech rights and trade secret rights
interplay with eachother, and under what circumstances one would override the other. Under U.S. law, free speech is not an absolute right and often
takes a back seat to other rights like the rights of others to be safe from violence and other people's intellectual property rights.
