There is always an ethical obligation, NDA or not. Corporate planning confidentiality should be a shared concern by both management and employees which questions the whole basis of the the NRLB's logic in the ruling. They essentially don't have the vested interest in the company that management and employees share. Stated another way, do you want Samsung, Microsoft and other competitors accelerating their development based on leaks and beating you to the punch diluting your announcement and impacting profitability, or do you want them playing catchup. All companies seek to limit confidential information for that very reason. Look at another industry - What if employees McDonald Douglas, Lockheed, and other defense contractors leaked confidential information on the planned and newest developments in weapons technology. They would probably be considered spies, not leakers, but it illustrates the extreme. Really have to consider if the NRLB has run amuck with the extension of what originally may have been solid within a narrow perspective and now applied generally.
