EXCLUSIVE: CompTIA Settles Suit Against Cheet-Sheets.com; Launches Industry "Security Council"
10/3/2001 -- The Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) confirmed to CertCities.com last week that it has settled a copyright and trademark lawsuit against Keen Interactive, owners of the site Cheet-Sheets.com.
According to court documents, the suit was originally filed by CompTIA in both the Cook County State Court and the U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois (where it was eventually litigated) on May 21. It stemmed from allegations that Cheet-Sheets.com -- known for its advertising motto of "actual questions from actual tests" -- violated CompTIA's copyrights by selling questions that appear on CompTIA's A+ and other exams.
"We feel obliged to protect the integrity of our program," said Lutz Ziob, vice president of certification for CompTIA. "We also believe that as an industry association...we have a role to play."
Ziob told CertCities.com that Keen Interactive agreed to the following settlement terms:
- Destruction by Keen of all CompTIA-related materials in its possession.
- Disclosure of all customers who purchased CompTIA-related materials.
- Payment of undisclosed financial damages.
- A permanent injunction prohibiting Keen from using CompTIA's trademarks on its site.
Keen Interactive confirmed the settlement terms to CertCities.com, but the company otherwise declined to comment for this story, citing legal concerns. CompTIA materials have not been available on the Cheet-Sheets.com Web site for several months.
The settlement and injunction were filed with the court on Sept. 17. Days later, CompTIA sent a mass e-mail to Keen's customers asking them to either destroy the Cheet-Sheets in their possession or send them to CompTIA (reports vary as to the e-mail's content).
CompTIA said it sent the e-mail for two reasons. "We wanted to notify them [the recipients] that the information they received violates a whole slew of copyright and other laws, both at the state and federal level," Ziob explained. "We also wanted to stop them from disseminating the information further and opening themselves up [to] possible liability."
When asked if CompTIA was planning on taking any disciplinary actions against those who received the Cheet-Sheets, Ziob replied, "Absolutely not...There's no kind of judgment here." Ziob also said that so far the response to the e-mail has been mostly positive: "Many [people] thanked us for letting them know."
While this suit has been settled, future litigation may not be far off. Several certification programs whose tests are also covered by Cheet-Sheets.com materials confirmed to CertCities.com that they have been keeping an eye on this suit, including Microsoft and Prosoft Training.com. (Novell declined to comment.)
None would confirm whether they are considering legal action, but Microsoft's Director of Certification Skills and Assessment Anne Marie McSweeney issued the following statement to CertCities.com: "Microsoft is aware of the issues surrounding Cheet-Sheets.com. The value of certification resides in a given credential clearly representing a skill set and demonstrating that an individual has experience working with the technologies. Those companies and individuals who attempt to circumvent the normal process of earning a certification do a grave disservice to the industry and to themselves. Microsoft is committed to maintaining the integrity of the MCP program credentials and supports exam security across the high-tech industry."
As part of the commitment, Microsoft -- along with Novell, Prosoft, Vue, Prometric and other industry vendors -- has joined a "security council" started by CompTIA to address the issue of "braindump" sites as well as other industry concerns. CompTIA is scheduled to announce the new council officially next week. According to Fran Linhart, director of certification for CompTIA, the council is a joint effort with the Association of Test Publishers. Rob Pedigo, former director of Sun Microsystems' certification program, has been hired to run the program, Linhart said.
While the security council has been in the works for some time, CompTIA was careful to point out that the Cheet-Sheets.com suit was not connected in any way to the council: "We [CompTIA] did this on our own," Linhart said.
CertCities will bring you more on this story as it develops. -B.N.
|
There are 158  user Comments for “EXCLUSIVE: CompTIA Settles Suit Against Cheet-Sheets.com; Launches Industry "Security Council"”
|
|
Page 11 of 16
|
| 12/29/01: Fully says: |
getting certified is the best move i've ever done...i would have never thought i would be making $82K off the bat the drawback is my taxbracket,i should'nt complain im turning 21 next month(WHHOOO-HOOO-FINALLY!!! guess im doing alright,for soemone who never attended college..yup ,..just a High School Diploma and a couple of cert's. eventually go to college probably next fall, i want to enjoy the summer first, certifications is not really a waste of time in my opinion., it actually opened many doors for me, it was weird turning down 50-60K jobs i think most guys my age would sell their soul for just 30K annually, no way not for me im to materialistic for jus 30-60K annually. i would assume that its really what you do with the certification, timing and presentation is the key if you have these certs, its what you make of it. long live certifications! good luck everybody and dont give up hope no matter what others say, WE MISS YOU CHEET-SHEETS!!!and thank you for helping me pass my exams. Off to my new Jaguar<2002 model hehe. sorry dont mean to brag but its my first new car. |
| 12/31/01: Anonymous says: |
Yep, Uh-Huh! Your "certification" must be in bullshitting! |
| 12/31/01: ccnp/mcse says: |
yep, Uh-Huh!You probably flunked yours ,bet you're certified on Hateing, you're just jealous just like everybody else. you are just angry at yourself because you cant make it as an IT, i know Jaguar(Ronald) personally, he's my boss, if you dont beleive me, email me and i'll give you a POC to varify our company and our credentials, all of you out there, all just jealous , its great to be working in the best IT Dept. in the world, HAHA |
| 12/31/01: Go-Bots says: |
what is up with these chicken sh@$'s that want to remain anonymous hiding behind Anonymous titles and the nerve to talk trash, big time loosers all of you |
| 1/1/02: gif says: |
Hey Becky, doesnt these 2 remind you of the guys on here...Happy New Year Ms. Nagel |
| 1/1/02: Anonymous says: |
i agree with you gifmonster |
| 1/1/02: -Ash says: |
This is in reply to all who replied to just some guy: I think what he said has alot of truth. He did say cheaters are stupid, but if you actually read the post, you would see that he was referring to cheaters. Cheaters being people who use nothing but cheat sheets. If someone incorporated cheat sheets into a study program then they are not cheaters, they are merely covering their bases. But if one studies primarily on cheat sheets, then they are not going to be very well endowed now are they? megatron- grow up, you certainly do not sound like a professional of any kind and I highly doubt you could have obtained any kind of management position with such a negative attitude, and immature demeanor. Management is reserved for mature professionals.(unless your daddy owns a company) ----to just some guy, you have big time issues man, you dont even deserve to put your 2cent here, these guys here are 80 to 100% fully certified and granted,know their stuff, you come here bragging about your stupid A+, dude, come back again when you have at least 5 certifications, you are a joke, lol ---- you should just STFU! (dude) -lol- your post is by far the most moronic posting I have seen in almost a year. Five certifications and then we are eligible to speak hey? Did you pick that number out of your nose? Yeah, thought so. -chunti- well, I'll just leave that one alone ---passed the A+ back to back in exactly 7minutes and 32 seconds, lets see you beat that hehehe. i should write a better book for these A+ wannabe's///just some guy///<==get a life you looser=)____________LOL ---- Ahhhh, and crack planet.... the pipe is good to you my friend. Delusions of grandeur over an a+ test. You sound like the typical (unfortunate) techy who gives us all a bad name. The self proclaimed genius who acts like he knows it all, patronizes his customers, yet can never seem to back it up. Before you write your book ;o) look up the word grandiosity. And btw... resol is loser spelt backwards. That tidbit should give you the ammo to impress the ladies on the "special" bus you take every morning. Attention jaguar aka ccnp/mcse Do you think we're stupid here? You are in a technically related forum you know? okay, just checking. It is so painfully obvious you are the same person. Come on man, I'm embarrassed and you're the one typing. Tell me what you're certified in? |
| 1/1/02: Anonymous says: |
-ASH- with all due respect you dont sound any better than these people you are talking about. please do not get me wrong i also agree with you with what these folk's here are talking about. it is a competetive feild and these people are just trying to psyche each other out, whatever pissing contest these guys are in i say 'let them' misery loves company dont get caught up in the mix. but it seems to me that you are already one of them. the only person i completely agree on in this forum is this gif monster guy, great sense of humor but so true. |
| 1/1/02: Anonymous says: |
I have this feeling that everybody and their mama who are looking for cheet-sheets are ending up in this page Well they are not coming back so there I Guess everybody really has to study the books now eh? no more free rides CRY, CRY YOU LITTLE BABIES HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA |
| 1/1/02: Hell Angel says: |
The sad part is that we work hard & the bastards takes them ALL |
First Page Previous Page Next Page Last Page
|
|
|
|
