Re: "The defect exists"
"Personally I think that obvious conspiracies like this should be investigated by the DoJ. In fact let's just make this sinister thing called "NDAs" illegal. Governments and corporations alike keep parroting that "nothing to hide" line, so personally I think its long past time that they started practising what they preach."
Except company DO have something to fear: the competition. That's why trade secrets and NDA's abound: to keep from Passing Information To The Enemy.