So, gee, now all concepts of intellectual property (IP) and proprietary technology are kaput?  So we should just f&#x27;get 
about patents and trade secret
protections.  And for national
security, sure, no longer need
security classifications such
as Confidential, Secret, Top
Secret, etc.<p>Sorry, I don&#x27;t believe that.<p>Here&#x27;s my guess at why people
say not to keep an <i>idea</i>
secret and, instead, to tell
the world:  By an <i>idea</i> they
mean just a rough description
of a commercial product&#x2F;service
as a user&#x2F;customer might see 
it.  The <i>technology</i> used
for the product&#x2F;service is
just routine software and
common, off the shelf (COTS)
hardware.  Any crucial, core,
original proprietary technology
is not expected and is just
missing.<p>Instead, when there was some
software for automatic trading
and it appeared that a guy
got a personal copy, the 
owners of that software started
legal action to protect their
technology and intellectual
property -- they didn&#x27;t tell
the world the crucial, core
internal details of just how
their software worked.