5/14/2003 -- Troytec.com/Testkiller.com are back, in a way.

Troytec.com (also known as Testkiller.com), a popular braindump site that sold questions from Microsoft, CompTIA and other program's certification exams, shut down in June 2002 after police seized the assets of their former owner, Garry Neale, during a Texas county criminal investigation based on a complaint filed by Microsoft.

The site returned earlier this week under new ownership. It appears to be offering similar content to the previous site, if not exactly the same: Google searches reveal that the questions provided in the site's Microsoft demo are word-for-word the same as those found on many other braindump sites, both free and paid, across the Web.

Because of civil and criminal litigation of such sites during the past few years, U.S-based braindump sites are now practically nonexistent. However, international offerings have grown, with many based in Pakistan, India and China. As of yet, no lawsuit, civil or criminal, has been filed against a site with owners based outside the U.S.

According to whois, the Troytec.com and TestKiller.com URLs are now registered to Ladish Ravdah, with an address in Maharashtra, India.

In an e-mail sent yesterday announcing the relaunch, the new owners appear to be confident that they will be immune from any litigation. "It won't happen again that troytec.com will go out of business," the e-mail read. "We have rooted our feet outside the US so that there's no fear of software giants trying to shut us down again."

The e-mail was signed Gary Neal, a misspelled version of the former owner's name. This misspelling is also used prominently on the new site's home page, under a large picture of "Neal" that declares him the CEO of the new Troytec.

In an interview with CertCities.com yesterday, Neale's attorney, John Convery, based in San Antonio, Texas, said that Neale has nothing to do with the new site. "[Neale] sold the URLs [Testkiller.com and Troytec.com]," Convery said. "[He] is not facilitating or endorsing any effort on the part of the new owner."

When shown the picture on the home page, Convery laughed: "That's not him."

Convery also said that Neale denies sending the e-mail, which appears to be sent from the San Antonio area to the same list Neale has used over the past year to keep interested parties updated on the progress of his legal case. It contained purported personal statements from Neale, including the following about previous litigation: "Kindly note that currently we will not reveal any other details like those related to our case against CompTIA etc. and how we were able to get through with all those legal hassles. Hence, I would request all my loyal customers not to send me e-mails and ask me any such questions."

The e-mail contains some inaccuracies. The CompTIA litigation mentioned above, a civil copyright and trademark case, was filed against Neale, and its resolution was widely publicized when the settlement became public in late 2001.

And, in fact, Neale's legal troubles are ongoing: Convery said that the former owner is still fighting to regain the assets seized last year, and that the Bexar County District Attorney's office still hasn't decided whether it will file criminal charges against Neale based on the Microsoft complaint. (Several calls to the Bexar County District Attorney's office seeking information on the status of the investigation were not returned.)

"He does not know who sent that e-mail," Convery said. "It wasn't him."

Convery said that they will be sending an e-mail to the new owners asking them to remove any references to "Neal" from the site and refrain from using it in future mailings.

"We are not trying to disparage the new owners...we just want to make sure it's clear [Neale] has nothing to do with the new site," he commented. "This has caught us totally off-guard."

CertCities.com sent an e-mail to Ravdah yesterday to try to confirm ownership of the site, the content of the study guides and who sent the e-mail, as well as asking for comment on the legal and "Neal" issues above, but did not receive a response by press time. We also attempted to reach Radvah by phone using the number listed in whois, but received only busy signals.

CertCities.com also contacted a spokesperson for Interland, the U.S.-based hosting company of the Testkiller.com URL, to try to confirm ownership of the site and who pays the site's hosting bills, but did not receive a response.

Several Web searches for "Ladish Ravdah" returned no results.

CertCities.com also contacted Microsoft and CompTIA for comment on the relaunch as well as what legal recourse, if any, programs have for international braindump sites in general. Microsoft did not respond. CompTIA could not respond by press time, but did say a statement may be forthcoming. - B.N.