NVIDIA Looks to Gag Journalists with Multi-Year Blanket NDAs

[D.P.]

Do you think the RBS group was within its rights to deliberately put healthy businesses into a 'special needs wing of their business' to bleed them dry to the point of going bust and then sell their assets, do you believe that is just part and parcel of capitalism?

Just to be clear i'm not remotely left wing, as you know i would sooner vote in Jacob Rees Mogg than Jeremy Corbyn.

Noi, and this is exaclty my point.

Nvidia may not be as clean as AMD, but both companies are complete angels compared to what is out there. We have:
* Tobaco companies that knew the dangers, so suppressed researched, bought out politicians, and lobbied with billions of $ in order to continue selling products they knew killed their customers
* O&G companies that knew their product caused catastrophic climate change that will in time kill millions of people and displace billions, they covered up science, blocked the release f government reports, bought out politicians, and lobied heavily to suppress the truth., And they are still winning.
* Ford Motor company who knowingly sold cars that would explode in a ball of flames because it was deemed cheaper to pay off the deceased families than do a recall.
* Monsanato: just too much to list
* Nestle: Gave free sample of baby milk to 3rd world mothers, knowing full well the mothers milk would dry up when not breastfeeding, creating a forced market where mothers in absolute poverty had to buy milk products, with nestle as sole supplier, or their child would die. Many thousands of children died.
* Total Sa, built an oil pipeline with slave labour, in 1999
* IBM, sold computers to the Nazis knowing they would be used to track down Jews to take to concentration camps.



Nvidia doesn't come close, and IMO doesn't come close to Amazon, Microsoft, Tescos or Shell. I take business ethics seriously, I have to, my wife is professor of Bussiness ethnics. She woudln't bat an eyelid at a company like Nvidia in the grand scheme of things.



As to the Politics, that is exactly my point as well. Nvidia is no where near as extreme as Jacob Rees Mogg. Nvidia are liek Cameron. AMD perhaps Tony Blair. Corbyn woudl apply to some NGO solving basic problems the government are just totally ignoring, like giving drinking water to those in poverty, even if it means those who by a Titan Volta have to pay an extra 10% luxury sales tax.

 

[humbug]

Great, so you agree there are boundaries to what's acceptable in capitalism.

I would argue that where you are misleading your potential customers in to believing they are getting something that they are in fact not, to a significant degree, like giving the name of a GPU known to be at a level of performance to another GPU build with much cheaper components resulting in only 50% of its name sake performance, or telling your customers a product has a level of components that it in fact does not, an outright lie.
Now i know you are going to disagree with me here but i think those sort of things cross those boundaries, the severity of it is nothing more than an aggravating factor, the fact that you are dishonest about what you are selling people is the issue, you can be a good capitalist without misleading people about your products, its why we have laws that nVidia fell foul of.

 

[jigger]

Noi, and this is exaclty my point.

Nvidia may not be as clean as AMD, but both companies are complete angels compared to what is out there. We have:
* Tobaco companies that knew the dangers, so suppressed researched, bought out politicians, and lobbied with billions of $ in order to continue selling products they knew killed their customers
* O&G companies that knew their product caused catastrophic climate change that will in time kill millions of people and displace billions, they covered up science, blocked the release f government reports, bought out politicians, and lobied heavily to suppress the truth., And they are still winning.
* Ford Motor company who knowingly sold cars that would explode in a ball of flames because it was deemed cheaper to pay off the deceased families than do a recall.
* Monsanato: just too much to list
* Nestle: Gave free sample of baby milk to 3rd world mothers, knowing full well the mothers milk would dry up when not breastfeeding, creating a forced market where mothers in absolute poverty had to buy milk products, with nestle as sole supplier, or their child would die. Many thousands of children died.
* Total Sa, built an oil pipeline with slave labour, in 1999
* IBM, sold computers to the Nazis knowing they would be used to track down Jews to take to concentration camps.



Nvidia doesn't come close, and IMO doesn't come close to Amazon, Microsoft, Tescos or Shell. I take business ethics seriously, I have to, my wife is professor of Bussiness ethnics. She woudln't bat an eyelid at a company like Nvidia in the grand scheme of things.



As to the Politics, that is exactly my point as well. Nvidia is no where near as extreme as Jacob Rees Mogg. Nvidia are liek Cameron. AMD perhaps Tony Blair. Corbyn woudl apply to some NGO solving basic problems the government are just totally ignoring, like giving drinking water to those in poverty, even if it means those who by a Titan Volta have to pay an extra 10% luxury sales tax.

Wow that is some seriously entrenched response. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't matter what Nvidia done you would find a way to rationalise and defend it.

 

[Rroff]

Corbyn woudl apply to some NGO solving basic problems the government are just totally ignoring, like giving drinking water to those in poverty, even if it means those who by a Titan Volta have to pay an extra 10% luxury sales tax.

Uh Corbyn would try to vilify everyone who ever bought a Titan while saying a lot and doing very little until someone else actually does something positive then jumping on the bandwagon and making out like he was there all along. He lacks real pragmatism, favouring blind ideology, and rarely gets his hands dirty until someone else has already done most of the heavy lifting. But unfortunately manages to fool a lot of people.

 

[Martini1991]

Great, so you agree there are boundaries to what's acceptable in capitalism.

I would argue that where you are misleading your potential customers in to believing they are getting something that they are in fact not, to a significant degree, like giving the name of a GPU known to be at a level of performance to another GPU build with much cheaper components resulting in only 50% of its name sake performance, or telling your customers a product has a level of components that it in fact does not, an outright lie.
Now i know you are going to disagree with me here but i think those sort of things cross those boundaries, the severity of it is nothing more than an aggravating factor, the fact that you are dishonest about what you are selling people is the issue, you can be a good capitalist without misleading people about your products, its why we have laws that nVidia fell foul of.

You mean like when AMD started branding Athlon II X4's as Phenom II X4's?

 

[humbug]

You mean like when AMD started branding Athlon II X4's as Phenom II X4's?

If that's a thing then shame on them too, i don't care who it is whatever you do treat us with respect.

 

[Martini1991]

If that's a thing then shame on them too, i don't care who it is whatever you do treat us with respect.

Well, they basically took what made an Athlon II at the time, clocked it higher and upped the branding. Yet they lacked the L3 cache that made previously distinguished the Athlon II to the Phenom II.

Your response is an example of why AMD get away with it unscathed.

 

[humbug]

Well, they basically took what made an Athlon II at the time, clocked it higher and upped the branding. Yet they lacked the L3 cache that made previously distinguished the Athlon II to the Phenom II.

Your response is an example of why AMD get away with it unscathed.

How is my criticism of that an example of why AMD get away with it?

 

[Martini1991]

How is my criticism of that an example of why AMD get away with it?

Firstly you're unaware of it happening, so AMD aren't judged on their mistakes in your eyes. How can they be? If people are unaware of something, they can't then make judgements based on that information. But why are people unaware of it?

Secondly you're reluctant to accept it outright, whereas I imagine you'd be fine to accept that straight away had it been another vendor.

Whereas Nvidia is "known" and "accepted" as bad.

It's not aimed at you personally. It's an opinion I've held for ages about peoples perception to AMD/Nvidia here.

EDIT : If you look at reviews of the Phenom II x4 840, they basically acknowledge in those reviews that they're re-purposed Athlon II X4 cores but reviewers give them a free pass based on price. That's great and all, but it released the day after Sandy Bridge or something daft.

 

[humbug]

Firstly you're unaware of it happening, so AMD aren't judged on their mistakes in your eyes. How can they be? If people are unaware of something, they can't then make judgements based on that information. But why are people unaware of it?

Secondly you're reluctant to accept it outright, whereas I imagine you'd be fine to accept that straight away had it been another vendor.

Whereas Nvidia is "known" and "accepted" as bad.

It's not aimed at you personally. It's an opinion I've held for ages about peoples perception to AMD/Nvidia here.

EDIT : If you look at reviews of the Phenom II x4 840, they basically acknowledge in those reviews that they're re-purposed Athlon II X4 cores but reviewers give them a free pass based on price. That's great and all, but it released the day after Sandy Bridge or something daft.

Christ you're beginning to sound like the SJW of hardware vendor identity.

I acknowledged AMD are no saints, the instant you pointed it out to me i accepted the possibility of its validity, when you doubled down on it i agreed with your condemnation.

Not good enough.

Well its all anyone can do.

Its just hardware.

 

[tommybhoy]

Forum lawyers taking the huff coz the other forum lawyers aren't agreeing.

Do wonder what Nv's going to **** up next week though...

Your response is an example of why AMD get away with it unscathed.

Your type of response is whats wrong(and pro NV users), not an NV user being negative against NV.

AMD/NV both don't get away with nothing, the problem being we only tend to notice the one that's in the headlines more.

 

[hyperseven]

No but it sure could land you in a very bad situation. How many times have Nvidia sued firms into oblivion. They seem actually seem to enjoy a good court case.

Don't know, how many times? What are the names of these companies 'sued into oblivion'?

How do you know they enjoy going to court? Usually a lengthy and costly process of which you may not get a favourable outcome.

 

[bru]

The threat of litigation will. Being under contract for 5 years tips the balance.

There are things in some NDA's that can never be revealed, hence the term Non Disclosure Agreement. the 5 year period mentioned in NVidia's NDA isn't that unusual.

 

[jigger]

There are things in some NDA's that can never be revealed, hence the term Non Disclosure Agreement. the 5 year period mentioned in NVidia's NDA isn't that unusual.

Maybe not. Points to note. The wording is ambiguous. The agreement is very long. Nvidia are not to be trusted.

 

[jigger]

Don't know, how many times? What are the names of these companies 'sued into oblivion'?

How do you know they enjoy going to court? Usually a lengthy and costly process of which you may not get a favourable outcome.

How long have you been a hardware enthusiast? Do a little research maybe.

More to the point in this case is how many firms have Nvidia used strong arm tactics against. That is probably the biggest threat and in most cases and probably enough to force a smaller firm to concede.

 

[D.P.]

Maybe not. Points to note. The wording is ambiguous. The agreement is very long. Nvidia are not to be trusted.

Whenever there is ambiguity in an NDA it only weakens the NDA, it doesn't strengthen it. If NVidia were not exceedingly clear with a statement, then that statement simply wont apply NDA.

THe NDA is shorter than most of the ones sitting on my hard disk.

5 years is monthly the maximum amount of time without external changes. As soon as the product is released then the NDA surrounding the confidential information expires automatically. More over, if the information enters the public domain then it also is no longer valid.
An NDA has to provide a default release date (otherwise the signatory can decide the NDA expires whenever they want). The default date is only useful when no explicit date is provided, and is just to cover any miscommunication. At our company we use 10 years, I've seen anywhere from 3 to 30 years. 5 would be on the short side. Nvidia have likely chosen 5 years as it should cover 2 generations of GPU.

 

[jigger]

Whenever there is ambiguity in an NDA it only weakens the NDA, it doesn't strengthen it. If NVidia were not exceedingly clear with a statement, then that statement simply wont apply NDA.

THe NDA is shorter than most of the ones sitting on my hard disk.

5 years is monthly the maximum amount of time without external changes. As soon as the product is released then the NDA surrounding the confidential information expires automatically. More over, if the information enters the public domain then it also is no longer valid.
An NDA has to provide a default release date (otherwise the signatory can decide the NDA expires whenever they want). The default date is only useful when no explicit date is provided, and is just to cover any miscommunication. At our company we use 10 years, I've seen anywhere from 3 to 30 years. 5 would be on the short side. Nvidia have likely chosen 5 years as it should cover 2 generations of GPU.

According to you maybe, but unfortunately you are looking at everything regarding Nvidia from an entrenched position. So yeah whatever...

 

[V F]

I honestly thought some people were joking from some other threads when graphic card discussions were discussing politics.

 

[hyperseven]

How long have you been a hardware enthusiast? Do a little research maybe.

More to the point in this case is how many firms have Nvidia used strong arm tactics against. That is probably the biggest threat and in most cases and probably enough to force a smaller firm to concede.

You brought it up

If you state stupid things at least have the good sense to have answers ready for when someone refutes them.

 

[jigger]

You brought it up

If you state stupid things at least have the good sense to have answers ready for when someone refutes them.

If you're going to take part in a discussion at least look into the topic a little. Nvidia's history is no secret to most people.