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Don’t fear the software shopkeeper: T&Cs banning bad reviews aren’t legal in America

Don’t fear the software shopkeeper: T&Cs banning bad reviews aren’t legal in America

Doesn’t stop them trying to put the frighteners, tho

By Iain Thomson in San Francisco 22 Sep 2017 at 23:32
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DerbyCon Security vendors are inserting language into their products’ terms and conditions that attempt to silence critics, folks attending this year’s DerbyCon conference were told on Friday.

More and more infosec software makers now include legal language in their T&Cs insisting that their products cannot be tested for usefulness if the results are going to be published. Effectively, the developers are trying to ban negative reviews from emerging online. Some publishers even specify a fine – up to $25,000 in some cases – if someone speaks out in public about a product’s failings and weaknesses.

“We have a lot of vendors acting like bullies,” said John Strand, founder of Black Hills Information Security, during his DerbyCon keynote. “Researchers are terrified that they are going to get sued. As a result most of the analysis of products you see is either from the vendor or vendor-approved.

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