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 103  user Comments for “CompTIA v. TroyTec Settled; Company Pulls CompTIA-Related Products from Site, Denies Wrongdoing”
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| 12/26/01: Anonymous says: |
Remember the old saying "There is a sucker born every minute." Good advice to give anyone seeking certification. |
| 12/27/01: anon says: |
like anything else in life: a cert could mean you really took the classes, studied hard, applied yourself in and out of the workplace and passed or it could mean you bought a transcender and passed in 2 days. the posters here from each far end of the spectrum are full of it, those that think certs are everything and those that think they are meaningless. ive worked with SAs that have certs and experience and those that didnt have certs, some of each group were sharp and some of each group sucked. i think certs if obtained the correct way can be a benefit, it can augment what is learned thru exprience. i currently work as a SA (with certs obtained thru hard work), the SA on the other shift has no certs, but "more experience", yet he had no idea how to install networking without having the NIC driver right there, or how SIDs can affect authentication, or that you can do half the things you can do thru system policy editor. geez, those are all things that i learnd early on while studying for my certs along with gaining experience everyday while working in the field. |
| 12/27/01: anonymous says: |
is there more to the story printed above that what i was able to read? i didnt see anything saying MS is making people retest, or some of the other off the wall comments that are made above. yes i think cheating is morally wrong. but for devils advocate sake, cheet-sheets, troys, transcenders, and all the othere were/are retail products that arent againt the law to buy. i can see comptia suing, and they should, but how can someone who bought a legally sold product be held accountable? until a company is sued and the product yanked and deemed to violate the privacy acty, how can you hold a purchaser available??? think about it. do most people who buy the product know theyre getting near verbatim test quesations, of course, but what about someone who doesnt know that???? and yes, there has to be some that arent aware, albeit a small number. should they be penalized??? what about people who used the products but didnt buy them??? how are you gonna regulate that??? you cant, what about braindump sites, that are not traceable unless you want to sue for IP address???? |
| 12/27/01: Mckinley says: |
Has anyone seen the piece of paper on the doctors wall that says he or she can practice medicine? Do you ask what grades they got in school when you step into their office, all A's or all C's???? The paper does't make them a good doctor or bad, all it say's is that you can pass the exams. It does't say how you prepared or what you used to pass. This goes for any test out there and for any job certifications also. These study guides may have questions that are similar to the ones on the test. As long as you didn't get a copy of your actual exam before taking it or had a friend at a testing center let you take prepared notes in with you or let someone else take the exam for you (yes this does happen) then by all means use any thing you can to get prepared for the test. |
| 12/28/01: ennui says: |
McKinley Morganfield's is the voice of reason. Honestly, while a business such as Troy Tech may run afoul of copyright violations, the LEGAL purchase of "study guides" is just that: LEGAL! Put this into perspective, a lot of BLEEDING DEACONS have been renouncing "study guide" users as "cheaters". Really? How many of these purists didn't touch those dreadful yellow "notes" books that interpret literature, explain Trig, Calc, etc., and have been used by virtually every high school and college student in the US? HMM . . . This shouldn't be the sole focus. There are some geniuses writing that "those using xx study guide should be decertified, blah, blah, blah. . ." That's very interesting. How, exactly, do you propose to handle the FLOOD OF LITIGATION THAT WILL INEVITABLY ENSUE? Seriously, any organization that attempts to decertify one or any number of individuals based upon their legal ownership of a commodity will CLEARLY BE THE SUBJECTS OF SINGLE AND CLASS-ACTION LAWSUITS. So, why don't we simply put down the rant, realize that it's probably unethical to publish actual test questions--BUT SIMPLY INSANE TO RELY UPON THEIR ANSWERS--and put this tempest in a teacup to bed. |
| 12/28/01: Mr. says: |
You can do what you want regarding studying. But the REAL test is how you do in a job interview. If you get certified by using brain dumps, troy tech and other study guides, then you certainly aren't making it to the second round. Any manager with an iota of intelligence can spot a paper cert who used these cheat sheets and brain dumps a mile away. If you can't get a job or a promotion, what is the point of spending any time if not money on this anyway?? |
| 12/28/01: Anonymous says: |
certification V. experience? i know a lot of people in IT knows how to troubleshoot and solve problems, but you have to have certification to show it. So, if you have experice and think you can prove it, get certified. It does not matter whether you "cheat" it or not, person who with the knowledge and desire to learn will always excel. A certification is just a piece paper to let others know that you can do certain things or you have certain knowledge. |
| 12/31/01: zinny says: |
Anonymous Laughing IT Pro says SAYS it all. Vin is right on too. Maddog is a rube, and it sounds like he she works at a testing center. How about MCT at testing centers, access to material all the time, plus can keep taking (re-taking)tests--that is real impressive (NOT!). Troytech live on. |
| 12/31/01: Anonymous says: |
PASSING certification and getting knowledge are two different thing. CHEAT of not. It is a trend that people believe certification help them get a job. But many IT techie abused the policy and the nature of how thing work!!! |
| 1/1/02: Rene says: |
I think that the usage of brain dumps abroad would lessen right away if tests get correctly translated. I work at a testing center and I had an attendant moan about translation mistakes. I read the question myself (being MCSE), and found out that there was a BAD translation mistake and I then gave him the probably correct translation since none of the answers in that multiple choice test made any sense (that's a good trick anyway: First find out which answers are total BS, then you can do some multiple-choice and guess if you have some slight problems knowing which one could be good). And, yes, I used preparatory exams for every MCSE test (the offical MS ones, as well as Transcenders) - for the simple reason that the books from MSPress don't prepare you for the tests and neither for the real life. And they keep asking questions whose correct answer can only be known from looking up the whole W2k reference. IMO, MS should make their books a tad thicker and include the relevant information. Or the guy who failed the 215 exam for the fifth time with always only 20 points too little for passing. Do you blame him for turning to TroyTec if doesn't have the cold hard cash to try that exam five times more? No, folks, problem is some of the MS exams are pretty worthless. The only good exams are the design exams. I actually enjoy taking them. And sometimes, I think MS should demand that the applicant can explain why he/she selected a specific answer by filling, or have an open 'fill-in-the-blanks' answer. I think (I'll SOON find out :) ) Cisco does this. And after the certs, get knowledge. Go working. Maybe sell yourself a bit under your value, and if your boss doesn't think you're worth more after a certain period - there are jobs out there. |
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