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Settlement Reached in McAfee Class Action Suit

Posted by timothy on from the doesn't-run-well-on-linux dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Network Associates has reached a settlement in a class action suit alleging it broke its own license agreements by not providing users of VirusScan 3 & 4 with free lifetime upgrades. Although not admitting guilt, the settlement entitles all U.S. (sorry to the rest of the globe) owners of the older versions free upgrades to VirusScan v8 (or, optionally, QuickClean/AntiSpyware). If eligible, you have until July 16th to fill out this form. The settlement page also contains links to the Class Notice and Settlement Agreement (in PDF format)."

3 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. Congradulations by MBCook · · Score: 3, Informative
    Congradulations users. They promised you life-time updates and they renegged, so you sued.

    And what did you "win"? A free upgrade to a product with only one year of free updates.

    How did anyone "win" anything in this one? A refund of the origional purchase price AND a free upgrade would have been much more fair.

    If N.A. was nice, they'd give the customers a free upgrade and the free upgrades that they promissed.

    --
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    1. Re:Congradulations by nacturation · · Score: 2, Informative

      Congradulations users. They promised you life-time updates and they renegged, so you sued.

      How do you define lifetime? Usually, the lifetime refers to the product itself. Versions 3 and 4 have essentially been end-of-lifed. This sounds like McAfee probably didn't specify fully enough what "lifetime" means in their EULA. As a result, the lawyers get a quarter million dollars in legal fees. (Pet peeve: the word is congratulate. Think "gratuity", not "graduity". Oh, and while I'm being a spelling Nazi here, "reneged" has one "g".)

      And what did you "win"? A free upgrade to a product with only one year of free updates.

      Check out the PDF for the settlement terms. Emphasis mine:

      The parties have come to a settlement. Network Associates agrees to give each Class member a coupon for a free download of the perpetual version of one of the following: (i) McAfee VirusScan version 8, (ii) AntiSpyware version 1.0 or (iii) QuickClean version 4.01 (or the most recent versions at the time of download) software from mcafee.com.

      Perpetual, ie: never ending.

      If N.A. was nice, they'd give the customers a free upgrade and the free upgrades that they promissed.

      They did, if you'd RTFA.

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  2. Re: avg antivirus by bradkittenbrink · · Score: 2, Informative

    ask and ye shall receive:

    AVG antivirus