Pay up or else

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.