Microsoft sues Testking

Not really sure if this goes here or in news but I decided that it wasn't that news worthy but does show as an example of what is happening with curent certifications and those that would just memorise answers rather than do the study and how that sort of practice is devaluing the certs themselves.

For those that haven't come across this little titbit already...
arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2006/8/17/5013

Seems they are also demanding they hand over the domain name testking.com.

Personally I don't agree with what they are trying to do. Of course "braindumps" and "cheatsheets" hurt the value of certifications and anyone serious in the IT science will agree that memorizing instead of understanding will get you nowhere, however there is something MUCH bigger at stake here: Freedom.

"either identical or substantially similar to Microsoft's copyrighted exam questions and answers."

The whole idea of "copyrighting" questions and answers is stupid, since neither a question nor an answer can be unique enough or long enough to be considered "spiritual work" IMHO. In regular forms of spiritual work, such as songs and books, we can understand more or less when an infraction occurs among two products by comparing the number of logical and structural concurrences in both works as a whole. In a typically sized question or answer though, who would define how similar is too similar and similar in what way? Obviously we are talking about very specific thematologies which, unlike other areas of spiritual work, they have only a limited number of possible applications and logical/structural components to compare. This means that a company can practically copyright any question about a particular subject or technology. Also, just like an effectively identical question can be expressed in a totally different way, a completely different question can happen to sound very similar. This creates confusion and widens the limits for claims of "copyright infrigments" even more.

Even if their motives are pure, which I doubt, what will most likely happen in this case is that nobody will dare to publish a set of questions and answers that he thought, just because he knows that it will be very possible for an expensive lawyer to make this appear as copyright infigment. But this is a case of obstructing the expression of free thought and creativity! Probably not many people will feel affected from this, however the principle of Freedom will have suffered.

So if this succeds, I think it will be one more step towards legally establishing the absurd principle that ideas can be pattented and monopolized, which I think interests Microsoft even more.. :evil:

I think some of them are quite good, especially if they have taken the extra steps to explain why that answer is the correct answer and the others are wrong. It can sometimes help as a further resource to prepare for the exams......

On the other hand, some of them are a little too close to the real exam questions though.

I'm with you nske. It's only a matter of time until some lawyer starts suing people for saying the word "windows" in everyday conversation. After all, it is a well-known piece of intellectual property and how dare those glass merchants and UPVC frame manufacturers steal the concept? Lawsuit!! No; hang on - I can't say "suit"; that concept's been registered by the tailoring profession...

No; hang on - I can't say "suit"; that concept's been registered by the tailoring profession...

lol, cheered my day up already there :lol:

I don't think even in the US a judge would rule in their favour over a similar question. What I expect they are citing is where the question is identical but possibly the domain name in the question has been changed to say "testking.com" instead of the real exam's "Widgets.com". Something that close I would say is copying.

Lets not forget that MS has recently got their own test preparation company up and running and we all know what MS do with competition. Maybe I am getting old and cynical like Smurf but I feel that reading between the lines, getting this company up and running and taking out the competition has more to do with this law suit than MS trying to deal with an integrity issue with their certifications.