Re: Non-disclosure agreements

> Contracts for non-disclosure like
> non-competition clauses are contracts in restraint of trade and are
> subject to very significant limitations as to reasonableness. For
> example, a nondisclosure agreement applied to information that is
> already in the public domain would not be enforceable.
> ...
> Harvey Perlman

Why would a non-disclosure agreement dealing with public information be invalid? Suppose A doesn't know but wants to know the date of Lincoln's death, and B says: "I will tell you the date right now, and save you the time of looking it up, but only if you promise not to say anything about Lincoln's date of death to anyone else."

This seems like an odd thing for B to say, but if A expressed voluntary, non-coerced, consent, would the deal really be unenforceable? If so, why?

        --Trotter Hardy

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