Standing up for free speech

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Feb 3, 2003

NAI lands itself a hefty fine...

Network Associates Inc. (NAI) has landed itself a hefty fine to start the new year after a New York court ruled against the company last month in a legal battle that has been ongoing since early last year.

New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer sued NAI in spring 2002 over an 'unenforceable clause' on its software products and website, which curtails the user's right to publish product reviews. The clause reads 'The customer will not publish reviews of this product without prior consent from Network Associates Inc.'. The NY attorney general asserts that this is a violation of customers' rights to free speech.

Meanwhile, NAI claims that the sole purpose of the clause is to prevent the publication of reviews of outdated versions of the software - and there have been plans since February 2002 to update the wording to reflect this more accurately. However, a year later, the company is still in the process of changing the clause; NAI's legal representative Ken Roberts said, 'We're trying to get it done as quickly as possible.'

Justice Shafer of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled that the clause was deceptive, and ordered NAI to pay 50 cents for every copy of its products sold bearing the licence - which, VB imagines, mounts up to a fair number and may somewhat increase the speed with which the 16 words are updated.

Posted on 03 February 2003 by Virus Bulletin

 Tags

twitter.png
fb.png
linkedin.png
hackernews.png
reddit.png

 

Latest posts:

VBSpam tests to be executed under the AMTSO framework

VB is excited to announce that, starting from the Q3 test, all VBSpam tests of email security products will be executed under the AMTSO framework.

In memoriam: Prof. Ross Anderson

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of Professor Ross Anderson a few days ago.

In memoriam: Dr Alan Solomon

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of industry pioneer Dr Alan Solomon earlier this week.

New paper: Nexus Android banking botnet – compromising C&C panels and dissecting mobile AppInjects

In a new paper, researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Bansal provide details of a security vulnerability in the Nexus Android botnet C&C panel that was exploited in order to gather threat intelligence, and present a model of mobile AppInjects.

New paper: Collector-stealer: a Russian origin credential and information extractor

In a new paper, F5 researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Chaturvedi present a 360 analysis of Collector-stealer, a Russian-origin credential and information extractor.

We have placed cookies on your device in order to improve the functionality of this site, as outlined in our cookies policy. However, you may delete and block all cookies from this site and your use of the site will be unaffected. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to Virus Bulletin's use of data as outlined in our privacy policy.