IP: more on Network Associates

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1999 13:09:17 -0700 (MST)
> From: Joel M Snyder <Joel.Snyder () Opus1 COM>
> Subject: Re: Network Associates
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
>
> Network Associates is famous in the media community for their fairly slimy
> ways.  They are continuing a program of sleazy ad campaigns with
> half-undone blouses and drug-based humor ("not since the early 80's has so
> much been snorted so quickly"),  along with the the 60-foot-long banners
> with grammatical errors at trade shows ("while your watching me..."). At
> the same time, the control-freak review mentality continues.
>
> I wrote a review of firewall products for Network World magazine and looked
> at Gauntlet (the firewall product NAI bought from TIS) without NAI's
> permission.  Unfortunately, it did not get a great review, largely because
> they haven't touched the product significantly since they bought it several
> years ago and showed up fairly miserable performance.  (Other reviews have
> seen similar results)
>
> This sent them into a total tizzy.  They tried a bunch of approaches
> to get the review pulled from Network World magazine, and one was
> pulling out the license clause you noted.
>
> Fortunately for informed consumers of the world,
> this is a special add-on to their license which is not incorporated
> in the product.  If you get the product without reading that license,
> there is no affirmative "click to agree" on the No Benchmarks/No
> Publicity step.  Thus they had no moral and no legal standing to
> claim that their products can not be evaluated without permission.
>
> When you actually install their products, there is a license which you have
> to agree to, but it does not include the hush-hush clauses.  So it is
> possible to review their products, even if they are afraid of publicity,
> but you have to be careful about how you get them.  It is clear that they
> don't want to participate in head-to-head reviews unless they are in clear
> control.
>
> jms
>
>
> Joel M Snyder, 1404 East Lind Road, Tucson, AZ, 85719
> Phone: +1 520 324 0494 (voice)  +1 520 324 0495 (FAX)
> jms () Opus1 COM    http://www.opus1.com/jms    Opus One
>
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