NAI Lawsuit

Since this was brought up, I thought I'd pass along NAI's official word...


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Some of you may have seen the news of a lawsuit that was filed against
Network Associates yesterday by New York State Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer. If you or your customers have questions about the lawsuit or NAI's
reaction, the following information should help you respond.

New York alleges that Network Associates deceived customers by including a
clause in its end user licenses which requires that reviewers and benchmark
testers obtain NAI's consent before publishing. The intention of this
clause is the exact opposite. We have found in the past that reviewers were
utilizing old versions of our products or inappropriate products in
preparing their reports. The result was that consumers trying to make an
informed buying decision had bad information. The clause was a
communication tool with the reviewing community to make sure that consumers
got the best information possible.

There is no "censorship" or First Amendment issue. Our desire was and
continues to be to help customers make good decisions based on current
information.

The current language being implemented in our EULA emphasizes our desire to
get accurate information to consumers.

The exact language of the agreement is as follows:

"Network Associates, Inc., updates its products frequently and performance
data for its products change. Before conducting benchmark tests regarding
this product, contact Network Associates to verify that you possess the
correct product for the test and the then current version and edition of the
product. Benchmark tests of former, outdated or inappropriate versions
or editions of the product may yield results that are not reflective of the
performance of the current version or edition of the product."

For those of you working with governmental customers, please be aware that
New York has not alleged that NAI has done any illegal act toward New York
State in the sale of our products to New York State.



[P.S. I got this in an email]