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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| 1/2/02: Cheeky CompTIA says: |
Half the people who enter this debate are completely nuts. We are talking exam situation not real world scenarios even the most seasoned IT professional will not face the variety of challenges given in any certification testing program over a year. For US$125 each the cost of sitting an examination is damn expensive for the individual, any worthy employer will review the résumé/CV for a) experience or b) certification hopefully both. We can all go the high and mighty “It’s Cheating” lets face it the A+ certification is a joke and possible the easiest test anyone will every face 220-201 & 202 should take you under ten minutes each. Personally I will continue using as much resources as possible to complete my certifications Trancenders, TroyTec, Braindumps etc. Who are the cheats here when you sit an official MOC course at a CTEC and the trainer is some ‘Paper MCT’. If you want to talk morality I’m sure the previous post who are ‘High and Mighty’ on cheating and TroyTec have never used illegal software, ever copied a CD or downloaded an MP3. It shows the state of the industry when you get snobbery of this calibre, just give people who want to get into the industry and start a new career a break they know they have to work harder in the field to catch up, I think the ‘paper qualification’ people know their short comings, as an experienced IT Manager I’ll help all my staff as much as possible and if TroyTec and others can eliminate some ‘EXAM STRESS’ I’ll buy what they sell. |
| 1/3/02: Brian says: |
This whole "you are a cheater" crap is nonsense. All of you instructors are teaching basically straight from the book. I can read myself so I don't need to pay you thousands of dollars to read it to me. Now don't misunderstand me, instructor led training can be by far the best way to learn along with hands on experience. The supposed desired result of using some kind of test preparation isn't to cheat on the exam, but to find what your weaknesses are so you know what to concentrate your study time on. Studying for an enormous amount of time doesn't do any good if you don't know what to focus on. Troy was wrong in breaking any copyright laws and 'they' should pay the penalty for it. Any of their customers should feel guilt free. If the questions they were using are the same as what was on the exam, then good for them they got the cert, but bad for them as well because they really don't know how good or bad they really are. Beachfront Direct is the only test preparation tool that I have seen out there, where the questions are as close to the real exam as they can get without breking the laws. Its not about changing a single word here or there. Its about quizzing you on all of the aspects of the exam and making sure you have a full understanding of it. When you know all of the information it doesn't matter how the questions are worded. You know the material and that is what matters. The idea that being certified means you can perform my job as well as I even if I don't have all the papers that you do is a joke as well. There are kids coming out of high school with a CCNA or MCSE and don't know where to begin when they sit in front of a server. Some of these tools out there are not made for everyone, and everyone may not need it. The books teach a job, not to pass the exam. If you don't already know the job, thendon't take the test. If you are new to the industry, then maybe the cert will get your foot in the door for an interview, but certainly shouldn't get you the job. People using these tools should not be criticized for doing whatever is necessary for them to get these certs. Especially if they already know the job. Knowing the job will not get you through the exam. These tools can help you save a lot of time to accomplish something that really shouldn't be an issue. But then again this is a money oriented world and that is not going to change! |
| 1/4/02: IT Big Dog says: |
You folks really need to get a life. In response to Testing Center Owner Anonymous, when he/she referred to "grey" area; it is apparant, despite all the letters after his/her name and the smug nature of their comments, that they really have no clue at all. By the way, the word they were grasping for is gray. This speaks volumes with regard to their true education and intellectual level. Also, to Testing Center Owner Anonymous (probabaly New Horizons since he/she does not have the spine to identify themself); prepairing for testing or validation of one's knowledge (whether it be in a college classroom, a courtroom, a certifiaction exam, a driver's license test, or setting up a enterprise network solution) has always been and will always be an attempt to "seek out the actual test questions" within the context of maximixing the return of your preparation efforts. That is the purpose, other than for pure learning, for studying and organizing prior to these challenges. Towards that end, individuals prepare themselves in whatever way they feel is most appropriate for their learning and preparation style. As for myself, I place little stock in a piece of paper, be it a colledge degree or some type of certification. My company is filled with college graduates and paper experts , hands on experts that never graduated high school, developers and project managent personnel (the actual ability to perform the job varies wildly among all of these individuals and is usually not directly related to their education level or certifications), and finallly those who have the appropriate mixture of formal education, hands on expierence, and elect to top it off with certification. As an IT professional with more than twenty years of expierence (a dual masters degree in Chemisrty and Electrical Engineeering from MIT, with a doctorial degree in EE from MIT ,MCSE 4.0+I, MCSE WIN2K, CCIE, Master CNE, and too many more to list, I would much rather have the person that did not graduate high school and has the hands on expierence working for me. I would likely hire that indivdual as I, and my staff, not only know the proper questions to ask during the interview process, but have a lab setup that requires indivduals that we are interested in to "solve" preconstructed scenarios related to real world design, security, and trouble shhoting challenges. Make no mistake, certification(s) and all of the ancillaries associated with them, are BIG business. I agree that college degrees and certifications provide insight into an indivduals ability to learn, work ethic, commitment, et. al. However, I think that there is currently an over emphasis on both of the aforementioned. The bottom line is that a company needs employees that can get the job done. As a IT VP of a major IT based transportation comapny with more than 100K employees I have found that degrees and certifications are useful in screening applicants to enable my staff to focus on the, seemingly, most qualified candidates. Our hiring panel questioning, simulation and design testing lab, and other testing procedures quickly weed out the pretenders. As long as an applicant can prove themselves during the interview process or on the job, I could care less how they got their piece of paper that got them into the interview process or job in the first place. |
| 1/5/02: Anonymous says: |
How many people have certifications only because their employer requires it? At my place of employment they require we show proof of certification prior to being able to work on a new OS that was rolled out in the company. |
| 1/6/02: Anonymous says: |
Can anyone on this site make they argument for me how Examsheets, Troytec, or any other site that sells "studyguides" is legal. I have seen some of these and they are word-for-word questions and answers. How can this be legal? Confused. |
| 1/7/02: Anonymous says: |
Correction to "Can anyone on this site make..." It should read IF the study guides have questions that are word for word how can this be legal. |
| 1/7/02: nitin says: |
please can you send me some ccnp dumps for the paper bscn 640-503 please show me some hot stuff thanks |
| 1/9/02: Jak says: |
I dont have a B.S. but I do have my certs and 7 years under my belt. How much are you making with just your BS degree? I'm over 65k..... with out it. So was it worth getting 4 years exp over a degree? you bet. As for the guys who are working at burgerking and think the IT industry is your answer think again. Those tech ad's on the radio are lame. |
| 1/12/02: Bill Gates from Redmond, WA says: |
after reading through all 4 pages, i came to a reasonable conclusion, all of you are RIGHT & WRONG, my Co. and I are aware of these resources and we dont plan on prosecuting or taking any legal action, we do not plan to decertify anybody least of all for that matter, i highly recommend these study guides, Mr. Vin my hats-off to you, you are one of the only few people on this forum that makes sense, im clearly aware of the debate regarding these issues, it all boils down to "what you really make of it"(Certs.)lets get in gear everybody and stop worrying about other people, it all start's with ourselves. Take Care and future success in your career's. |
| 1/14/02: HL from Connecticut says: |
Yes. Certification did mean something before. now it appears that everyone including their mothers are certifying. Kids in Junior-high, etc... I don't have a problem with it but no matter what people will use materials that will save them study time, give them the right material to study and pass an exam as fast as possible. People do not have time to read a complete study guide that provides you with fluff information, points you in the wrong direction and gives you a false sense of preparation to pay for and take an exam you are not really able to pass, while the company or BS organization charges people between $125 - $185 per exam. Transcender got sued too by Microsoft a few years back, they immediately changed their exam format, test engine, etc... This certification game is quite necessary in the job market but at the same time such a rip off!! I for one value certification but at the same time I feel it is a sometimes an endless waste. Very mixed feelings. I do n ot like these ex-paper delivery boys turned IT admins, yapping this self-rightious crap about everyone's a cheater. Would like some cheese with that wyne. People will continue to cheat there way through these lolly pop admin certs, but you will always see a lack of Developer certified professionals because you can't just walk in to a organization/company telling everyone that you are a enterprise certified developer when you just ttested and passed a slew of developer exams but you can't write one line of workable code. THere will always be a gap in the IT Developer world because people are either to lazy to learn to code or just not smart enough to be a developer. Too many admins not enough developers. But that good for me. Without developers you wouldn't need admins. For all those saying everyone else is a cheater but themselves I have a question for you. If you used: Troytec, Transxxx, Foreign study guides, any boot camps, Study guides, online exam questions, simulations or any other study aid you might as well say you cheated also. Hipocrites shut it!!! |
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