Pay up or else

A word of warning about sneakwrap licenses: what really counts is not so much what the fine print says as what the vendor says it says.

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Late last year a reader we’ll call Mr. Warner received a letter from Network Associates that seemed to be saying his organization’s subscription to the McAfee VirusScan security suite was about to expire. This surprised him, as he knew only a year had passed since he’d renewed for another two-year subscription. “On inquiring, I was assured that it was merely our PrimeSupport (maintenance) agreement that was expiring, as one year of PrimeSupport had been included as part of the subscription,” Mr. Warner says.

After polling his staff, Mr. Warner decided that access to PrimeSupport’s KnowledgeCenter and other support resources wasn’t worth the price he was quoted, and he informed his Network Associates account manager he would let the maintenance agreement lapse. “I was very surprised when he told me that failure to renew our PrimeSupport agreement would mean that we were no longer entitled to download updated virus definition (DAT) files and software updates, in spite of the fact that we still have a year remaining on our subscription license,” Mr. Warner says. “In support of this, he e-mailed me a .PDF file that confirmed what he told me, [but] I was not able to find that file or any similar information on McAfee’s Web site. Considering that without access to updated DAT files, our VirusScan software is virtually useless for the second year of our subscription license, I think they would at least notify us of this change.”

Ultimately, Mr. Warner felt he had no choice but to pony up for a second year of PrimeSupport, but he was very unhappy about it. “In effect, this policy change amounts to an almost 20 percent retroactive price increase for us,” he says. “While it is not impossible for me to find the money to cover this unexpected cost, I budget very tightly, and I don't appreciate having to do this with no notice whatsoever.”

When Mr. Warner alerted me to this situation, he sent copies of all the documentation he had, including the original end-user license agreement for the two-year subscription and the .PDF file his account manager had sent him. The former stated clearly that he was entitled to download revisions, upgrades, or updates throughout the two-year period, but it was completely contradicted by the .PDF document.

“Customers must have a current PrimeSupport agreement in order to be entitled to download product updates and upgrades, including engine and DAT updates for both subscription and perpetually licensed software,” it read. “At this point in time, DAT files and engine updates may be downloaded without entry of a valid grant ID; however, this does not legally entitle a customer to do so.”

In other words, Mr. Warner would have been physically able to continue downloading virus update files without PrimeSupport, and his original license gave him the right to do so, but he was now being told it would be illegal.

Oddly, the document that was telling him this seemed to be addressed to McAfee sales staff or resellers, since it mentioned explaining to “your customer” what the policy meant. Like Mr. Warner, I was unable to find anything on the McAfee security Web site stating that PrimeSupport was required for access to the DAT files. In fact, the descriptions of PrimeSupport made it seem to be an optional service. (Just before press time, a paragraph was posted on the McAfee DAT download page, stating that business customers “must have a current PrimeSupport agreement in order to be entitled to download” the files, although nothing actually prevents anyone from downloading any of the updates.)

Network Associates officials confirmed that the .PDF document does indeed accurately reflect their policy for business consumers, although they emphasized that the consumer versions of VirusScan do not require PrimeSupport agreements. At first, they claimed that the PrimeSupport requirement was not a new policy and that Mr. Warner had simply failed to notice the explanation in the grant license document he received when he renewed his VirusScan subscription. When they sent me the verbiage of that grant license, though, I saw that it actually confirmed the license agreement by stating that automatic delivery of all virus updates was a free service “for all our corporate anti-virus subscription customers.”

With that, Network Associates officials admitted a mistake had been made in Mr. Warner’s case and said he would receive a free year of PrimeSupport as a result. However, they said the grant license verbiage was changed shortly after he received it, and the automatic delivery of DAT files to all business customers was “end-of-lifed” last summer. So the policy will still apply to other subscription customers, and at some point, open access to the DAT files may be blocked. "We currently offer our customers the opportunity to download DAT files without enforcing a verification of license and support entitlement,” said a company spokesperson. “We do this for a number of reasons, one of which is to allow immediate downloads in the case of a virus outbreak, when time is of the essence. While done as a convenience, this does not mean that customers are entitled to DAT without a current PrimeSupport agreement."

I can only surmise what Network Associates' motive is here, but I suspect it's all about letting its sales force do exactly what it did to Mr. Warner.  The company wants to be able to call customers halfway through the subscription period and force them to pay more money.

When it comes time to squeeze a little more out of you, it doesn’t matter what the original sneakwrap license said. The terms you agreed to are the terms that the vendor wants now.