CompTIA v. TroyTec Settled; Company Pulls CompTIA-Related Products from Site, Denies Wrongdoing
12/19/2001 -- The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) has settled its second lawsuit this year against a test prep company it accused of violating the organization's copyright by allegedly selling study materials containing questions that appear on CompTIA exams.
The organization filed suit against Troy Technologies USA and its owner, Garry L. Neale, in the United States District Court, Western District of Texas on Nov. 28 (The Computing Tech v. Neale 5:01cv1078). The case was settled earlier this month.
CertCities.com was unable to obtain the complete terms of the settlement before press time. We attempted to reach both sides for comment on this story. Neale, who earlier this year dissolved his Troy Technologies USA DBA and formed TestKiller LTD, did not respond to our request for comment, but did release the following statement on the Troytec.com Web site, in which the company denies any wrongdoing:
Troy Technologies USA ("Troy") has recently settled a dispute with The Computing Technology Industry Association, Inc. ("CompTIA") regarding certain study guides that Troy previously sold pertaining to various certification exams offered by CompTIA. Specifically, CompTIA alleged that Troy's study guides for CompTIA's A+ Hardware, A+ Operating Systems, Network+, and I-Net+ certification exams violated CompTIA's copyright and trademark rights, among other rights. Without admitting any wrongdoing and, in the interest of ending the dispute and avoiding controversy, Troy has agreed to cease distributing any study guides directed to CompTIA's exams pursuant to a stipulated court order. Accordingly, Troy will no longer offer any study guides for any of the CompTIA certification exams.
CompTIA was unable to respond to our request for comment by press time, but a spokesperson said that the company should be prepared to make an official statement shortly.
It is unknown whether the names of those who bought the study guides were given to CompTIA as part of the settlement terms. This was a condition of the settlement in CompTIA's suit against Keen Interactive's Cheet-Sheets.com, which was settled earlier this fall (click here for story). CompTIA posted a statement regarding its motives behind this settlement condition on its Web site.
The Cheet-Sheets.com site went down a few weeks after its settlement was reached, and has yet to go back online. CertCities.com has been unable to verify whether the company has gone out of business or if the site is down for other reasons, like technical issues.
CertCities.com will bring you more on this story as it develops. -B.N.
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There are 104  user Comments for “CompTIA v. TroyTec Settled; Company Pulls CompTIA-Related Products from Site, Denies Wrongdoing”
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| 12/21/01: Leo A+,N+,MCP+I,MCSE NT.0,MCT, Compaq APS says: |
I saw one of troy techs study guide and if any persons used solely that info to pass a test from Microsoft or Comptia they would never pass that exam. I thought it was highly over rated.What you need is experiance and hard study. By cheating you devalue the cert programs of MS and Comptia. |
| 12/21/01: Anonymous says: |
This whole certification industry(cos that's what it is)leaves me baffled. 25 years in this industry I did my first cert (MCSE) 3 years ago, why? because the 'technical' management didn't know what I did or could do or what skills I possessed, because their knowledge was limited. Same goes for the staffing agencies. They are the people who need the certs, real IT pros don't, we know whether we can do it and we can soon tell who else does also. Devaluation of certs? put that down to the boot camps and 'CCNA in 5 days'. Their motivation, money! C'mon people, gimme a break, get this thing in perspective. If people want to pass exams by cheating they always will, let them, they won't last five minutes in the real world! The only place they may get something from their nothing is in acadamia where the pieces of paper are taken at face value as entrance criteria; and the academics have the gall to tell us to get a real piece of paper a BA, BS etc; do me a favour. |
| 12/22/01: Chuck says: |
Of course if the tests by the various companies tested real world ability, then brain dumps, TroyTecs, etc wouldn't really help. How about having a person setup a network and make it run properly as the exam for MSCE? The other option is having a huge test bank. My oceanography teacher told us all the exam questions were publised in the school libary. If we thought memorizing 3500 questions was easier than learning the material for 3 exams of 35 questions each. |
| 12/22/01: MCT says: |
I am a instructor of Microsoft courses. My goal in each course is to teach the students how to set up and manage a Windows 2000 network (or whatever OS Microsoft presently has). But I would be doing my students an injustice if I did not try to specifically prepare them for the tests as well. They don't need the exact questions, but they need practice on reading situation questions just like they need practice on the network. Because of this, I purchase almost any study materials someone recommends to me. It do this to see if I should recommend it to my students. I did not recommend TroyTec. I was not impressed. I don't know if they are the exact questions because I have never read through a complete TroyTec. I don't want my students to just memorize a correct answer. I want them to understand why one answer is correct and another is not. I recommend to my students study materials that have multiple answers. Then we evaluate the answers and ask why/why not. Isn't this what we do in real life. We have a problem and we lists the possible solutions and try to evaluate which one will solve our problem? If I can get my students to do this for all their practice questions, they don't need the real questions because they will have the knowledge to pass the test and work as an IT professional. Have you ever noticed Transcender and Self Test and others like these do just that. Yes they are practice questions and if they really cover the material, they will probably look like the real questions. But with their discussions of the answers, they are also teaching materials. This is what I look for in a good product and what I would recommend to my students. Finally, as far as CompTIA or any other company pulling their certifications because someone bought a product, I don't think it will ever happen. As a matter of fact, CompTIA says it will not on it web page. It would be hard to justify pulling my certs when I purchased a copy of TroyTec after I became certified! |
| 12/22/01: Mr.TroytecKeenChinaITCertAss says: |
Ok Fine! I did it! But not without 5 years of Experience, five big projects in my back and a lot of practice test. All i can say is , I think its bullshit to study something that your sure will not come in the exam and in reality. It's like reading Mills &Boons and taking your COllege entrance exams. In our school Math subject, we practice exams given from previous years. Try the 70-216 exams from troy and check if youll will pass that crap! I bet my egg you will not even get the 600 mark! |
| 12/22/01: Anonymous says: |
Using Trancender, Braindumps and Troytec for certification purposes does not mean that person is stupid or not knowledgeable. The real problem lies in the fact that the industry believes too much in certification. My new boss at work now wants all CNEs to have MCSE certs and all MCSEs to have the ASE in 4months, in such a situation I won't be surprised if my collegues fall on Troytec and other study materials. Also the exams are too expensive, much people "cheat" to save their hard earned money. If I used Troytec A+, will Comptia revoke my cert? If they do they are in for a big might, because the study material used by a candidate is a candidate's responsibility |
| 12/22/01: Anonymos says: |
I am changing careers, I was in another vocation for fifteen years and wanted a change fo lifestyle and better life for my family. I've used the TroyTec materials with other products for study and reference, as well as Transcenders. I have found they are all useful if you keep in mind what they are, reference. If someone uses just TroyTec (which I did't) it doesn't always mean that they are cheating, passing these exams are the goal. Getting your foot in the door is very difficult and gaining a cert. or two is definatly key to obtaining a job. I have young children and I yes I have beento college, but now I do not have time to obtain another degree. Yes, I know what I am doing and these certs. have certainly paved the way. Now, for all those people on their high horses, get off and look around, people use what means they have to to pass these exams, if they can do the work what difference is it to you? Why should you care. Microsoft is a marketing company , bottom line! It's all about a persons performance when they get behind the door. If somebody is changing careers or just getting into this field they are going to be a paper cert. no matter WHAT! Then the experience can come to reinforce the knowledge. |
| 12/22/01: MCSE opinion says: |
to TestingCenterOwner Anonymous , are you sure you're really upset that people are using troytecs, or are you upset that testers don't have to continually visit you and deposit $100-$200 down for another test...I know you don't get all the money, but you do get a percentage of it. The more people that fail tests and come back to try again, the more money you make. Don't try to deny it. |
| 12/22/01: Anonymous says: |
i'm an instructor at a MS ctec...i teach classes to morons that don't even know how to use a mouse. if these people are buying troytec they will not pass the test anyway. another problem with Ctecs are that the MOC info that we are required to use doesn't touch on CERTS at all. our sales reps tell the customer that they WIll be able to pass the test after the class, and they charge them $1500 the take the class. MS used to require MCTs to pass the test to teach the class and now it is not required. Many times I get sent into the classroom with out passing the test...and my school is so concerned about getting money they will MAKE me teach a class without even looking at the product before they get someone to teach the class that knows what the are doing. I stood up to them and they said..."if you don't like it...there's the door". i have a wife, 2 kids, mortgage, car payments. So I buy the troy tec to get up to speed on the product so I don't look like a complete idiot when I stand in front of the class. Some classes I use the troytec to pass the test because it gives me some credibility. It Sucks though. I am looking for another job. I got my MCSE 4.0 and 2000 without using troytec but for any new electives I get stuck teaching without prep time for the class( and there is never prep time)I WILL use the troytec. I used to stay up to 4am studying materials and working on MS stuff but I'm sick of it. 2 hours sleep a night just doesn't cut it. And when MS released XP it really pissed me off. Now I have to llearn something else. When you go to a CTEC to take classes...ask how long the instructors have worked with the product...ask how often the school brings in a contract instructor to teach classes...Ask if the instructor is certified and when they got certified...ask how long the instructor has been working there...You will be surprised. Protect yourselfs from Schools and just learn the stuff by doing it!!!!!! |
| 12/22/01: Who says: |
People -- listen to yourselves! You're talking about a multibillion dollar industry which is going to move forward no matter what happens to us as Certified and non-Certified technicians. There are over 1 million pages of information published by Microsoft on Windows 2000 for us to pour over in preparation for their certifications. There are over 100 different Exam-prepatory companies in existence, thousands of MS-Certified teaching facilities throughout the US (many more, Globally) and over 30,000 IT people lost their jobs between 2000 and 2001! STOP the bickering and the gesturing. Weren't the events of September 11th, 2001 enough to bring all of us together as "one-team?!" We, as the IT professionals of the world have to survive to keep the commerce of business in the US going forward. Study by whatever means will truely help you "learn!!!" your jobs so that we're all working competently together in one profession. If you subscribe to Troy Tech (or Test Killer) or any of a dozen other so-called "Brain-Dumps" for the sole purpose of passing an exam -- and don't put the effort and experience into really learning the job -- as they say ... the cream rises to the top. It's the natural order of things. Learn your craft and study by whatever means you can ... but do it to bring a better level of professional to the IT world. You know who you are. If there's not a certain amount of creed and humantity left in you -- you'll be found out in the workplace and dealt with, accordingly. 70-240 on 12/28/01 -- bound by faith and professional fortitude .. I wish you all well .... Rick |
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