I'm glad I followed the advice of other end users that I trust and chose
Norton as my anti-virus program.  it seems that Network Associates will
send its attorneys to any county courthouse in the United States to force
users to remove their software from their computers or worse yet get a
big judgment and take their house away or garnish their wages if you own
the program and say something about it without the company's permission.
I didn't realize that people may be in legal danger if they owned this
product.

Kelly

 New York Challenges McAfee Software Covenants

The Associated Press

February 8, 2002


New York state has sued the maker of McAfee anti-virus software alleging
it is restricting free speech by barring customers from publishing
product reviews without its consent, New York Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer announced Thursday.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Network Associates Inc., placed restrictions
on software diskettes and on its Web site, from which users download
software, that explicitly prohibit customers from criticizing products
without permission, Spitzer said.

"Network Associates is trying to insulate itself from the type of
criticism and commentary that is the essence of the free market,"
Spitzer said.

The clauses, known as restrictive covenants, are illegal because they
harm the public by censoring discussion of a product's flaws and
defects, Spitzer contended.

Network Associates general counsel Kent Roberts said the clause was not
intended to prohibit reviews but to ensure users had the most updated
version. He said the language has been since changed to "take a more
suggestive approach."

"We have seen cases where old versions of our products were reviewed on
their own and problems were noted that had been fixed by subsequent
versions," he said.

In July 1999, Network Associates demanded a retraction of an unfavorable
review published in the online and print magazine Network World, citing
a clause on its Web site that prohibits product reviews without
permission, the lawsuit alleged.

Consumer groups said the lawsuit ensures that users and publishers can
continue to independently evaluate software products and discuss their
findings publicly.

"Private companies simply should not be permitted to stifle the First
Amendment rights of consumers and publishers who buy their products,"
said James Guest, president and chief executive of Consumers Union.

But Roberts said he does not see a free speech issue because license
agreements by nature limit a user's rights.

"Software licensing frequently restricts terms of use," he said. "The
bundle of rights can be restricted by the terms of the license so that's
why there's not an issue legally with respect to what we did."

The lawsuit, filed in state supreme court in Manhattan on Wednesday,
seeks to prevent enforcement of any clause restricting product reviews
of the company's software, as well as costs and penalties for the
company's conduct.

Network Associates, which was founded in 1989 and employs 3,606 workers
worldwide, is a leading developer of anti-virus and firewall programs.
Its revenue for the 2001 fiscal year totaled $834 million.


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