CompTIA Sues Overseas 'Braindumper'
8/6/2003 -- According to court records, the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is currently pursuing a copyright infringement case against CheatExams.com, a Web site that sells " real exam questions." The site's URL is registered to Adarsha Computers, which lists an address and phone number in Denmark.
CompTIA has pursued legal action against U.S. based braindump sites several times over the past few years, including a case in 2000 against the then-Texas based Troy Tech (click here, here and here for past coverage of this site) and another in 2001 against Cheet-Sheets. However, this appears to to be the first such suit filed against an overseas braindumper.
The civil copyright suit was originally filed in February in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut against a U.S.-based defendant named George Jennings. At the time, whois listed Jennings as the registrant for the URL.
Adarsha Computers, the current registrant, was added as a codefendant in May.
According to the case docket, neither defendant responded to the case, and CompTIA has asked the judge to grant it a summary judgment.
CertCities.com attempted to reach Adarsha Computers using the Denmark phone number listed, but received an out of service error. The e-mail address bounced. We also attempted to reach the site owners through the contact information given on CheatExams.com, but received no response. We were unable to verify the existence of Jennings.
According to AIRN.org, the IP address registered to the site is hosted in India. CertCities.com located an Adarsha Computer in India, but was unable to communicate with the company to find out if it has a connection to CheatExams.com. Adarsha appears to be a common naming convention for businesses and educational institutions in the country.
A spokesperson for CompTIA said that the organization could not respond to our request for comment by press time, but may be prepared to make a statement about the case shortly.
CertCities.com will bring you more information on this story as it becomes available.  -Becky Nagel
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There are 47  user Comments for “CompTIA Sues Overseas 'Braindumper'”
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| 8/6/03: mrobinson52 from Florida says: |
Go get 'em CompTIA! It is funny that Microsoft and Cisco, who have more money, never go after these braindump sites like CompTIA does! And you would think they could certainly afford the legal fees better. I hope that CompTIA wins this lawsuit and that it can have a chilling effect on all of these sites that cheapen the certifications that we all work so hard to attain! |
| 8/6/03: Tcat Houser says: |
While I am of course delighted CompTIA has taken action, isn't is really on us as the folks who are being harmed by dilution of our efforts when we don't pubically destroy the names of people who ask for illegal material? |
| 8/6/03: G says: |
Microsoft and Cisco probably don't really care...Think about it, the more people they have certified, the more businesses they are going to have using their products... |
| 8/6/03: Cliff from Tucson says: |
That'll stop those braindump sites from popping up...Not! You'll notice that their all overseas. Why not close down the testing centers that sell the screen shots of the actual exams to the braindump sites? This action reminds me of the war on drugs and I don't think anyone is winning that one either. As long as people have access to the the actual test questions, they'll be making a buck selling them. It's like pissing on a forest fire. |
| 8/6/03: Rich from Orlando says: |
As most of the other comments have stated in one fashion or another, "Do you acyually think MS or Cisco are losing money due to these 'cheat sheets"? Hell no!!! Ethically and/or morally it is wrong if you are going by the book. But there are those out there who are somewhat intimidated by these types of tests and look for an 'easier' way to get it done. 2 years ago I looked at one of those sites but did not find it very trustworthy since the actual test questions are cycled with some questions being archived. What type of tech would you rather be? |
| 8/6/03: Mike from Detroit says: |
The responsibility does not stop with CompTIA, MS, or Cisco. It does not stop with the testing centers that are handing out the screen shots. The responsibility of stopping these types of sites from diluting the meaning of the certifications is to also report those who are making these very certifications meaningless. Those who are not able to pass the tests for certs on their own merits, skills, knowledge, and honesty should have the certifications removed. They possibly should be barred from further certifications from that specific "vendor" if multiple offenders. The only way to keep certifications that are valuable that way, and get the value back from those that are losing their value due to the "paper" certified. Is to start a type of "grass roots" movement to gain the value of these proofs of knowledge back. Notice these are proofs of knowledge; brain dump type sites revolve around nothing similar to knowledge. |
| 8/7/03: parisian says: |
although i do believe CompTIA action is full of merit , i do not believe it will have any impact on the actual case , as an IT team manager , i do look for certed personel , but i also weed out a lot of them on the first interview being myself certified i am able to quiz applicants on different aspects , for example if i'm looking for a help desk tech with Windows 2000 and XP cert (70-210/270) and have an MCSA in front of me i will as him/her questions on command line operations/syntax , GPO's , PKI , RRAS , etc , believe it or not i had an MCSE in interview the other day that could'nt tell me how to start a DCPROMO process and the difference between a primary and AD integrgated DNS zone , so i do believe that beyond constructors and test providors , the ultimate responsability is in the person who's hirering , in my past experience as a techy and engineer i had too many (not to say most) managers/project directors that had no clue what their subordinates skills where suposed to be , hirering an IT guy should'nt be done by HR but by a peer with a lot of experience , problem is we dont come cheap |
| 8/7/03: CChelpdesk from Canada says: |
Way to go CompTIA! It is nice to see someone leading this pack. We all suffer from these braindumps, or at least us people that have studied and worked hard to earn our certs. |
| 8/7/03: zanne says: |
When your looking for information to help you study, it's not always easy to tell a good site from a braindump, especially if you are familiar with them or even knew they existed. I wish it were easier to tell, I don't learn well from reading 600 page books, and I would like to find study materials that are easy like those but aren't in violation of copywrites. |
| 8/7/03: Becky Nagel from Editor, CertCities.com says: |
Zanne -- Good point. It isn't easy to tell (we've had experience with that ourselves). About the best way is to go to the About us page of the site and see if it says anything about "actual questions." If you're still not sure, go into a sample they offer for a popular MS exam, copy a question word for word, then paste it into google. Most braindumps are the exact same as those all over the Web, so you'll usually get a number of hits from this if it is. Another way is to look at the site URL registrations; often, they're the same across many of these sites. I do caution against ruling out sites just because of their registration country: for one, these can be fake. But more importantly, there are honest overseas providers, such as WhizLabs.com. Hope that helps some! -- Becky |
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