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.
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There are 158  user Comments for “EXCLUSIVE: CompTIA Settles Suit Against Cheet-Sheets.com; Launches Industry "Security Council"”
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| 11/11/01: Andreas says: |
The answer on how to make tests/certifications more valuable: Deploy adaptable tests only with a large pool of questions and lots of simulations. This raises the bar to pass an examn in my eyes. |
| 11/11/01: Chad says: |
This is sad. It makes no difference to me how you pass your exam. Bottom line is this. These tests are money makers and in no way test my or anyones ability to how they will perform with the real problems that arise every day in IT. Every single MCSE in the world is a 'paper mcse' if you picked up one exam prep software or one braindump or one book, I guess that means your paper mcse then. I have one exam remaining for 2000 MCSE and I study and read anything I can get my hands on. I took 5 MOC classes, I read almost the whole resource kit, I have a home lab that I set up for each exam I am studying for, I read EVERYTHING I can, braindumps, posts, anything. I do labs, I read, I do more labs, and I read some more. Does this mean I will be 'paper mcse'? Sure does, we all are. If these so called 'non paper' mcse's picked up a transcender to pass an exam, then they are the same as the rest of us. If anyone studies anything at all from braindumps to test-prep software, then they are all paper-mcse's. As mentioned somewhere in here, the ONLY way to solve these arguments is for Microsoft to hold labs similar to CCIE to fix this. Put you in a room with X amount of pc's, and give you a scenario of what they want built/accomplished and give you X amount of time to do it. This is the only way, and I think its an excellent idea too. The questions that arise in these tests are so stupid its unbelievable, they are almost sad. In no way can these questions chosen out of the blue prove my ability and/or knowledge. The MOC classes I took and absolutely suck. Those MOC books suck. It is a huge MONEY MAKER. The least Microsoft could do is give you some information in the MOC books that will help you pass hte exam, but they don't. So until M$ changes its testing requirements, we will argue forever. |
| 11/11/01: Anonymous says: |
Braindumps will never be done with. If anyone has tryed to take the 70-216 test they know what im talking about. Most of the people i know use braindumps and have took the 70-216 test and still failed. Why, because the questions are always changing. Instead of spending all that money on lawyer and going after cheat-sheets why not make the pool of questions more. Man if someone used braindumps for a test that had 500 questions and memorized most of them, well then I think he must know something. |
| 11/12/01: Anonymous says: |
All I can say is if ya get rid of the dumps and things like cheet sheets then you better get rid of thees $200 and $300 test fees.I mean hell think about it somebody (Vue, prometris and all the others) are making a killing. And I have rarely ever heard of many who went it solely on a dump that would be stupid, but to use it to make you think in a new unique way, yes all the time. All I can say is that the big guys are not legitimizing certifications but they are profiting it! Like any other business - it is a business to make money from you and me - and that's it! |
| 11/12/01: Leigh says: |
I purchased the cheetsheets because Microsoft makes its test so unfair and are the exams are not even based on the material covered in its own books. Microsoft needs to make the exams fairer and maybe cheetsheets won't be a problems any more. Leigh Marts Wellsco Graphic Solutions Paragould, Arkansas |
| 11/12/01: Anonymous says: |
Wow, you whiny little brats! "Microsofts tests are so unfair!" "Micro$oft is greedy!" Wake up folks, they're a BUSINESS! If their clients wanted to hire a bunch of morons who could cram and pass a test, that's what Microsoft would provide. Contractual obligations aside, their loyalty is to their stockholders and their customers, not to a bunch of spoiled brats! I'm an MCSE/NT 4.0 who is currently working on upgrading my certification. Was I annoyed that they originally announced that my certification would expire? Sure was! Was I relieved when they split the cert into NT 4.0 and 2000? You bet! However, I'm still pursuing Win 2000 certification. This is a part of being a PROFESSIONAL! You continue learn to advance in your field. |
| 11/13/01: aREAL(ITpro) says: |
come on now everybody its a okay to whine like a little brat once in awhile, but lets not forget the real reason/s why we all pursue these Certifications.."cant we IT's just get along?" we are better than that...thats why we make soooo much more money....IT's are teamplayers. lets not bash these paper mcse's at least they have the initiative to pursue and take the exam...we all have to start somewhere right? aReal(ITpro)- MCT,MCSE,MCDBA,CCDP,CCIE,UNIX,OCP8iDBA/ Developer,A+e-Biz+i-Net+,Master CIW,Sun-Java2 programmer; HTML,C++,Perl,XML,Cobol, |
| 11/13/01: Dr. says: |
ITpro, i completely agree with you, but do not forget human networking as well as technological networking is important, its about helping each other, us IT's should band together, not critize each other because of a paper title. |
| 11/14/01: Randomx says: |
Why don't they shut down Microsoft too? The whole thing has been a lie since the beginning. Isn't it Mr.Gates? let me refresh your mind: http://users.aol.com/machcu/msrise.html http://www.darwinsys.com/history/mslies.html |
| 11/14/01: j says: |
I hope they pop up in a different place. These vendor have had the upper hand for too long!!!!! |
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