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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 159 CertCities.com user Comments for “EXCLUSIVE: CompTIA Settles Suit Against Cheet-Sheets.com; Launches Industry "Security Council"”
Page 14 of 16
3/6/02: edumekated from UCLA says: certifications????? why dont you guys just get a University Degree/"a real DIPLOMA certificate" instead of this IT certification hype, please people have some respect for yourselves. GO BACK TO SCHOOL YOU LOOSERS to a real school!!!!! EGADS!!!!
3/7/02: Anonymous says: Braindumps forever!! Learn on the job!
4/1/02: i cant be stopped says: [-;[-
4/15/02: Mike Bauer says: I certify on somthing about every month or 2 at the most and study my ass off every day to learn the stuff inside and out usually I use braindumps for about 5 days before a test after reading 2-3 books on the subject.I feel that they are an important part of the process and to tell the truth I have seen maybe 3-5 questions on any given test that came from dumps this will not get you a passing test score!!! It will help you practice your test taking skills and help you get information down.the biggest danger is beliving that the people who write the dumps are giving you the coorect answer alot have wrong answers!!!
4/25/02: Web Pirate from USA says: Once again, the monopoly strikes. Free enterprise is dead in the computer industry--There's the right way, the wrong way, and then there's micro$oft'$ way. Go to NAPSTER "type" sites to rip off Keen too!
5/13/02: Come On! says: Get real! If a certification affirms what a person has already proven in day-to-day, real life, business situations, then it is worth something. Otherwise, it is a meaningless piece of paper best used to line your bird cage. As someone who interviews computer professionals, I would choose someone with practical experience over someone with alphabet soup after their name. Overall, the certification business is just that - a business meant to line the pockets of software manufacturers. If they really wanted to "certify", they would set up lab situations in which potential candidates would have to solve common, real life problems. The problem with this approach is that there wouldn't be enough profit left over for them to stuff in their greedy, little purses. Like all other education endeavors (yes, including college), we have the cart before the horse. Anyone seeking certification should be required to have a minimum of 2 years' industry experience BEFORE being allowed to even pursue a certification. This would help to weed out people, who are just seeking to slap "MCSE" (or any other cert) on their resume.
5/30/02: John Tobin from Ireland says: Since people were using braindumps, not enough people were failing, therefore not enough filthy lucre was being generated for the filthy fat cats who wanted to stay fat, and all under the laughable pretext of maintainance of high standards. As if they care about anything else but money. They must think we’re all naïve. They only want to preserve their position selling exorbitant training courses. Hence they made A+ more difficult, if not nigh impossible. Hence the appearance of the many ambiguous, misleading, perplexing, devious sneaky, and largely undocumented A+ questions designed by Comptia’s machiavellian department (working 24/7/365) to make us stumble. Wasn’t it difficult enough? Why then ? Because of the so-called ‘paper-qualifications syndrome’? The ‘braindumps’ argument? I have to say, - I’ve never heard such a load of nonsense in all my life. Is knowing the answers not what it’s all about? So what if someone copies 500 questions off the net? So what?? It means he knows the answers to 500 questions, no? The important thing is the knowledge, no? So if he knows it, then what’s the problem? - Oh! Is it because despite all his knowledge, he can’t repair computers? You know I’ve heard that argument, and I just can’t see it. Because in that case they’d have to scrap the A+ plus exam in its present form because, curiously, it’s all theoretical, anyway. Incomprehensibly, - there is no practical exam requirement anyway, so why penalise people for knowing the answers if they do, - from whatever source, - isn’t that the whole purpose of the exercise, since most of it is nuts-and-bolts-memory material anyway, and since it proves we know the stuff ! And even if you had practical computer experience, (which I have) it still wouldn’t significantly help you to pass the A+ because of the ridiculous misleading tiny-detail questions they just pull out of the ether, that it’s not likely you’re gonna know! What are they afraid of ? That the imagination of the researchers working round the clock 24/7 inventing devious A+ questions will shortly run dry? Or that the number of questions they would otherwise have to invent would swell the A+ software package way too big to fit on their server? I would like to see an end to sneaky, trippy questions whose poor wording is either so downright unprofessional at best or deliberate and therefore fraudulent at worst, and designed to deceive and to trip up not just exam-sitters but those who design them.
6/1/02: Anonymous says: GUESS WHAT PEOPLE!!!I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE, CHEET-SHEETS (KEEN INTERACTIVE) ARE BACK IN BUSINESS ,PLS. DO NOT GET CONFUSE WITH CHEAT-SHEETS, ITS chEEt not chEAt
6/1/02: timmy says: yaaaayy, im going to get my certifications now, oh joy!
10/7/02: Anonymous says: Some sites are obviously brain dump sites, but what about those that claim to have legitimate study guides? Watch out! Suppose you go to one of the supposed legitimate study sites and download a study guide. If you aren't very careful, you may not realize they used questions from the exam. Next thing you know, your name is turned over and you are permently decertified. Or... Microsoft could dummy-up a study-guide web site and collect names. Say bye-bye to your legitimate cert.
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