Comments on: McAfee's Trojan horse error gets developer's goat

A software developer whose program was accidentally labeled a threat is considering action against the antivirus company.

[Alex Alexzander]

what's not satisfactory?

They addressed the issue within days.

They have a process for developers to pre-test their software.

The responded within days.

If you want to sue them, you need to show they are being negligent. How are they being negligent. Clearly the developer isn't aware that McAfee has these processes in place, and in reality it's the developer's job to be aware of this situation. The developer should know that the world is using anti-virus software, and everyone is well aware that anti-virus software can cause other software not to install correctly.

Try and prove negligence in this case. I just wish I was in court to watch the judge's eye-brow raise in utter amazement that you are wasting the court's time with this garbage.

-Alex Alexzander

Rebuttle to Alex

This Alex person must not be a software developer, and probably more likely working for the IRS or similar company.

Based on Alex's statement "They have a process for developers to pre-test their software.", what he is basically saying is that it is the job of all software developers to submit their software to EVERY anti-virus software company. No-no-no-no! The burden of proof is in the hands of McAfee. It is their job to identify all viruses and such properly. Software developers has a full right to develop software and sell to end-users without the need to submit to procedures set forth by another company. Doing so would be totally ridiculous!

It is true that software companies should submit their software to the manufacturers of operating systems, such as Microsoft or Apple, for testing. That's because the operating system is a core foundation for all software. Anti-virus software, however, is NOT a required component of a computer.

Another point Alex made, "They addressed the issue within days." Addressing the issue is NOT the solution. The issue is that McAfee's method of detecting software via a signature is what's at fault. There's no way for McAfee to reverse the damage they did, which is why there is no issue to be addressed. McAfee's customers rely on Internet connectivity to obtain AV updates. For McAfee to basically change their updates and post them on the Internet is stupid because THE ISP CUSTOMERS CAN'T EVEN GET ON-LINE TO GET THE UPDATES!!!!! Or did Alex not realize that??????

Get real, dude!

He refuses to say if he will take legal precedures

mcafee are liable in a number of areas a company like themselfs know their position if they say something is bad its written and so it is done the masses will believe it they must have insurance or a fund put aside from all that money they make to cover themselfs from this sorta thing "friendly fire" but its like driving in to the back of another car no matter what the situation it was your at fault and your insurance company must pay. this man has worked very hard to produce his software just for mcafee to come along and give it a bad name for no better reason than their software didnt like the look of it well mcafee should not be allowed to work this way its guilty until proven innocent.
Immediately after being notified, Griffiths sent an e-mail to McAfee but did not hear back from the antivirus vendor until Monday.
days is simply not good enough you would have to be a complete moron not to be able to add a simple line of code to a dat file and add it to your update servers in less than 5 mnts what mcafee more than likely did was treet him as some scammer and his software as a trojan you have to understand that the majority of his customers wont read news pages like c|net and slashdot to here of this injustice to them and their isp's.

Wasting the court's time with this garbage?

In this day and age the courts live for this garbage it keeps pay checks coming in.Everyonme wants a pie of the internet sky.We will see more and more of this stuff tieing up the courts it's no different then the format wars (that are driving everyone crazy)Everytime you stick a vcd in your home player you have to pray it will play on your machine.Everyone wants to protect their goods while the rest of us walk around ind a daze wondering "will this work with that will that work with this!