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Palo Alto Networks Threatens to Sue Security Startup for Comparison Review, "Breaks Software EULA"

posted by martyb on Sunday October 25 2020, @01:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the whale-of-a-challenge dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow1188:

Palo Alto Networks threatens to sue security startup for comparison review, says it breaks software EULA:

[...] In a note on its website, Orca lamented at length the "outrageous" behavior of PAN, as well as posting a copy of the lawyer's letter for world-plus-dog to read. That letter claimed Orca infringed PAN's trademarks by using its name and logo in the review as well as breaching non-review clauses in the End-User License Agreement (EULA) of PAN's product.

[...] "It's outrageous that the world's largest cybersecurity vendor, its products being used by over 65,000 organizations according to its website, believes that its users aren't entitled to share any benchmark or performance comparison of its products," said Orca.

[...] Orca's boss believes a law in PAN's home state of California makes it impossible to prohibit the publishing of reviews, and also cited a case in New York where prosecutors sued McAfee, under its short-lived corporate name of Network Associates Inc, for banning reviews in its EULAs.

When asked what he thought the outcome of this latest battle would be, (Orca chief exec Avi) Shua said he hoped PAN would "simply remove these clauses from the EULA," insisting "so many people from the industry" don't support bans on reviews. He also added, in another shot across PAN's bows, that if formal legal action ensues, "it'll cost us a lot of money but it won't break Orca. I'm not going to be bullied into not doing something because someone else has deeper pockets."

Palo Alto's cease and desist letter (pdf).

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by EvilSS on Sunday October 25 2020, @09:18PM (2 children)

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 25 2020, @09:18PM (#1068651)
    Well this is just straight up false. While courts have held some to be unenforceable for various reasons, courts have also upheld them as enforceable in other cases. To make the blanket statement that they are not a "real legal document" is just delusional.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2020, @11:47PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 25 2020, @11:47PM (#1068706)

    Tell that to my 10 year old so that installs all my software. I don't even know what an EULA is. I certainly have never seen one.

    • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Monday October 26 2020, @03:57PM

      by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 26 2020, @03:57PM (#1068928)
      If your 10 year old is installing Palo Alto products a) kudos! and b) probably shouldn't have 10 year olds installing enterprise software.