NY Times: Court Rules Against Network Associates’ Software Review Policy. One of the most common, longest running provisions in software licenses used by almost every commercial vendor for every product has been a clause that says the licensee cannot publish a review of the product without the company’s permission.
Now, you say, I read reviews of software in every issue of every computer-oriented magazine. But what you rarely read are performance numbers. For example, show me a magazine article or analyst report that provides and compares specific performance numbers from database or J2EE application servers. Those are pretty few and far between and it’s due to this clause. The ones you do see are managed very carefully and almost always have employees of the vendor working with the publisher’s lab techs to get the most favorable configurations used. and if the numbers aren’t good enough, the software company will simply retract permission. I’ve been there, seen it happen.
Now NY State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer has won a major court decision that says these clauses are unconstitutional because they violate freedom of speech protections. Network Associates, the company involved, claims that they only want to ensure that reviews are based on the latest version of the product and are not “misleading.” Um yeah. You know, after the way Spitzer was the only government official who really went after the crooks on Wall St., I think he’s my new hero!
BillSaysThis 