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...Home ... Editorial ... News ..News Story Monday: January 10, 2005



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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.



There are 103 CertCities.com user Comments for “CompTIA v. TroyTec Settled; Company Pulls CompTIA-Related Products from Site, Denies Wrongdoing”
Page 9 of 11
4/21/02: Bret from California says: Well, I may be pretty young here...I'm fresh out of college at 19, and I have 7 certs, and trying to finish my MCSE. The only experience I have is doing things independantly and the lab hours I've put in at college. That does not mean my certs are "worthless pieces of paper." I mean, anyone who KNOWS anything about the IT industry KNOWS that a certification is just a piece of paper that says you know so much about a certain topic. I've known that ever since I wanted to work in the IT field. I personally believe that certs or your degree get your foot in the door, but like so many other people said, your experience, interview, and technical skills is what gets you the job. I have used troy techs (now test killers I think) on occasion for 3 or so of those 7 certs. Big deal. It doesn't mean that I'm not aware of what I am doing. I have my own home lab, and I purchase many books and learn about a topic before I bother getting certified. I only get certified now because the industry is in a slum at the moment, but when it comes back up, since I have very little college under my belt, I need something to "get my foot in the door" so to speak. I don't feel using a study guide is cheating when I have a home lab and learn to work things before I take the tests, and anyone with brains knows that paper certs will get you no where. YOu are only fooling yourself if you use ONLY a study guide to pass a test...the IT field changes so much, you have to constantly be studying up on new things. I almost feel sorry for the people who rely solely on test guides.
6/18/02: Anonymous from NY says: How are using TroyTec's study guides considered cheating? Who cares if some questions from the exams are included in the guides. The bottom line is companies like Cisco and Microsoft are reaping the benefits from certifications, in the form of revenue. Your first step in passing a cert is don't buy study guides from Microsoft Press, Cisco Press, etc...., they will only set you up for failure, REMEMBER, they are in business to make money!!! One reason certs are so popular is because 3 to 5 years ago when there were endless opportunities in the IT field and a lack of IT professionals, MCSE's of the time who didn't have the learning aptitude to obtain a college degree fell into IT management positions out the pure luck of timing alone. If you think you are going to get by in this field with Certs alone are the real cheaters. I'm not completely against certifications, but get a degree in the field, then the most powerful certs, i.e. not a cert every one and the neighbor has. Consider yourself Enlightened!!
7/7/02: ED Anonymous from Ca says: I have to agree about the comments to the testing center owner. I work with windows 2000 as an administrator and have noticed there are three ways to do things: the right way, the wrong way and Microsoft's way. I have noticed a lot of times the way Microsoft wants you to do something is not all ways the best way, therefore Microsoft's test questions reflect this. When I go into a test I use numerous items to prepare: the MCSE training Kit, Notes, any Info I can find from persons taking tests and online practice tests, this does not mean that I don't know what I'm doing. Experience and preperation are the keys, so making the statement, "They should take away your certs" is an idiot. I also agree that testing centers make out better if you fail, this does mean more money in their pockets, so consider the source.....
7/14/02: Anonymous says: CTECs offer "bootcamps" that allow people to pass tests, these folks have no prior networking experience, they go through a 6-week program and viola they are MCSEs. How do you think they do it? If you guessed TroyTec you're right!
7/16/02: MS Softie from UK says: I agree with most that certification should be attained without cheating. However it has took a 6 figure some to get to a high standard and so I can understand why people may cheat to get their foot in the IT industry door. Besides not everyone has the amount of money that some people have to pursue an interesting and varied career. Also if IT courses and exam fees were not so high then perhaps people may not feel the need to cheat, as I recently sat 7 MS exams at £110 a piece and failed all 7, but only because the 12 months studying and courses I had done had not given me enough info to pass some very difficult exams.
7/30/02: Mathew - MCP says: Concerning 12/21/01 - IT Veteran MCSE,CCNA,MCNE's post. You are so right... I worked with MS since 16 as an intern at a telecom and don’t know nearly as much as you. But I know enough to have a job and found the only test I’ve taken to not be representative of real working knowledge (e.g questions obviously having to deal with the setup of certain servers on a network on the 2k pro test). I don’t feeling guilty using the TroyTec (4 hours study, two practice tests and 820 on the real test) its pisses me off seeing people that have MCSEs and don’t know shit, but I’m not going to limit myself protesting the system while morons have a job and I don’t because a script weeded me out before a real person ever read my resume. MS has been tying their own noose since Win ME.
8/2/02: KARL says: CRY CRY CRY, ALL YA DA IS CRY!
10/4/02: Another User from Here says: I want to say that taking the troy does not necessarily mean that one is cheating. There are people out there that really knows their stuff. Most of them probably through experience. The problem is, people might not now the proper "terminology" and how the test will be worded. In the "real world" people do not really ask you what the terms mean when you are doing the job. As long as you can fix the problem, it should be good. The sad part is, managers hiring might just look at the cert vs. experience. Even if they ask questions, they might not be technical enough to weed out the weeds. It helps if somebody has a cert to even be noticed for an interview.
10/10/02: Anonymous says: OK, first off, all those people out there that say, that if would have relied on Troytec alone you would have failed, well, thats bull... cuz I relied on it as well as cheat-sheets, and I got all of compTIA, MS, Cisco, u name it, I got all the certs and no nothing of the subject. Sure!, I have no expirience, no knowledge, but I got a damn JOB!. Thank you Troytec!.
10/11/02: Dude from California says: Certs are definetelly worth something. When one writes a resume and has no certs, chances are that he/she is not going to get a job. Troytec was a great tool to help lots of people in this industry, but I do not think that using Troytec "cheeting". Microsoft has some pretty stupid questions on their tests and I believe that those are designed to make one fail and retake the test so we can give them another $80-100. Now, this is cheating. Why not let us know the questions we missed on the test. This is also cheating. Troytec is not 100% reliable to pass the MCSE tests, but it certaily helps.
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