Confidential Mark on Publicly Available Page/Document

[nicole88]

Illinois. If a slide deck, webinar or other presentation or website page says "confidential" but is publicly available online through a simple google search, or available on the company website, is it truly confidential? Can the information be shared if simply sharing the link would provide all of the same information?

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

The "confidential" doesn't really matter by copyright law probably would.

 

[FlyingRon]

This is not a copyright issue. Copyright has nothing to do with disclosure. If something is protected by copyright, any unauthorized copies are illegal even without any markings at all. Found on the internet doesn't equate to public domain.

Marking something CONFIDENTIAL by and large doesn't mean anything. If the people who are given the document have some sort of legal obligation to keep things private (they've signed a non-disclosure for instance), it may be an alert that this is covered material. However, there's something else other than the slide marking that governs whether it is disclosable.

If we're talking about the DOD security classification CONFIDENTIAL, then that very much has meaning. Even when a classified document leaks out into the press or other public channels, it doesn't alter those who have proper copies fo it to maintain the secrecy inherent in that marking.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I misread the OP. For some reason I was thinking the OP wanted to reproduce the document.

 

[quincy]

Illinois. If a slide deck, webinar or other presentation or website page says "confidential" but is publicly available online through a simple google search, or available on the company website, is it truly confidential? Can the information be shared if simply sharing the link would provide all of the same information?

How old is the material?

Sometimes material once held confidential will be published for public access once it has been disclosed elsewhere for its intended purpose (e.g., presentations for conferences).

Linking to a website where the material is published should not be a problem but copying the material would generally require authorization from the copyright holder.

In other words, the specifics matter.