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Nvidia Looks To Gag Journalists With Multi-Year Blanket NDAs (hardocp.com) 126

Posted by BeauHD from the gag-me-with-a-spoon dept.
The German website Heise reports that Nvidia's new non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) last for five years and are more far reaching than product-specific information. HardOCP explains what NDAs are and shares an excerpt from Heise's report: First and foremost, I should tell you that NDAs in the tech world are nothing new, but those non-disclosure agreements usually are product-specific and date-specific. Say we agree to get a review sample of video card X. Many times we will get an NDA that is specific to releasing any information shared by card X's representative and a date when we can share that information with you, often referred to as the "embargo date."

[Here's the excerpt from Heise about Nvidia's new NDA]: "The NDA should apply to all information provided by Nvidia, so it did not refer to a specific product or information. There was also no concrete expiration date. It was also full of conditions that ran counter to journalistic principles. Our legal department clapped their hands over their heads as they read the document. In other words, journalists are allowed to write only what fits Nvidia in the junk. In doing so, Nvidia downgrades the independent press into a marketing tool." There are several forums discussing Nvidia's new NDA. HardOCP has shared a copy of the NDA for you to read and make up your own mind.
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Nvidia Looks To Gag Journalists With Multi-Year Blanket NDAs More

Nvidia Looks To Gag Journalists With Multi-Year Blanket NDAs

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  • Corporate Success! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by viperidaenz ( 2515578 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @07:25PM (#56850904)

    Nvidia downgrades the independent press into a marketing tool.

    Nvidia will be the envy of all other companies.

    • Nvidia downgrades the independent press into a marketing tool.

      Nvidia will be the envy of all other companies.

      The press has always been an arm of big business, this is nothing new.

      Education as ignorance

      https://chomsky.info/warfare02... [chomsky.info]

      Manufacturing consent (book)

      http://www.amazon.com/Manufact... [amazon.com]

      Protectionism for the rich and big business by state intervention, radical market interference.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      Manufacturing consent:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      https://vimeo.com/39566117 [vimeo.com]

      Testing theories of representative government

      https://scholar.princeton.edu/... [princeton.edu]

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by epine ( 68316 )

        I bookmarked one of those links, which was new to me.

        You seem to be implying that the situation is so horrible already that abandoning any and all pretense of institutional norms is a distinction without a difference.

        Not even close.

        Those pretences were accomplished at great cost, over many centuries.

        Politically, humans are still wearing animal skins. They might be full of lice and gnats, and washed but once a year (if ever), but even so, I wouldn't toss them onto the garbage heap, just yet.

        • You seem to be implying that the situation is so horrible already that abandoning any and all pretense of institutional norms is a distinction without a difference.

          Not even close.

          Except I can tell you the facts and you won't reason to the right conclusion, your brain does not see reality as it is:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

          Don't think the upper business class is at war with the bottom 90 of the population? See here, former national security advisor of the united states, calling people like you (average citizen) a menace...

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

          Quote from - Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era:

          https://www.amazon.com/Between... [amazon.com]

          "The technetronic er

          • Re:Corporate Success! (Score:4, Funny)

            by Cederic ( 9623 ) on Wednesday June 27, 2018 @05:04AM (#56852326) Journal

            Except I can tell you the facts and you won't reason to the right conclusion, your brain does not see reality as it is

            Look, I hate to break this to you but for you to be able to make connections that I can't even understand when you tell them to me, your level of intelligence must be so far beyond mine that frankly it's at a level which fewer than a hundred people of the planet have.

            I don't think you're in that very exclusive set, and that means you have no credibility.

    • Nvidia downgrades the independent press into a marketing tool.

      Nvidia will be the envy of all other companies.

      Nvidia If you are looking for Gag Journalist with multi-year experience then they almost have a good hand in Product specific Information. Yahoo Tech Support Number [crumbles.co]

  • I'm missing something (Score:5, Informative)

    by farble1670 ( 803356 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @07:28PM (#56850920)

    You can still review and write articles about Nvidia products without signing the NDA. What's going on is that Nvidia is trading privileged access for control over the articles. Nvidia gives journalists the ability to make money from writing early to press, special access articles about Nvidia products in trade for control over the content.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      If a journalist doesn't get early access, others will and they become irrelevant and don't make any money. "Making money" means "earning a living" as much as "bonus".

      it's either "sign this NDA" or "be irrelevant"

      That's the reality of the market forces. How you could miss this is beyond me - unless you work for NVidia.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Archfeld ( 6757 )

        I disagree. Develop a reputation for writing fair and true reviews and people will flock to your side. We are all tired of sycophantic reviews that read as ads or rate a crappy product in a favorable light. Buy your own product and write a true review and 'they' will read.
          IDEA - Run a fund me for the price of a card, complete the review and give the card away in a lottery to one of the original funders.

        • We are all tired

          ...only for very small values of "all".
          Most people are sheep and adore shit reviews with little value, presented in primitive and colorful ways.

          Jayz2Cents' reviews are usually non-scientific, but fun to watch. He has 1.5M subscribers.
          GamersNexus' Steve writes scientific, objective, hard-worked and exact reviews. He has 274K subscribers.

          I'm subscribed to both, but for a true review Jayz2Cents is laughable while GamersNexus have all my attention. For wacky projects or watercooling stuff, Jayz2Cents is the one

    • You can still review and write articles about Nvidia products without signing the NDA. What's going on is that Nvidia is trading privileged access for control over the articles. ...

      Or everyone could just stop writing anything about Nvidia and let them see how that goes.

      • Or everyone could just stop writing anything about Nvidia and let them see how that goes.

        Tech news sites depend on having the tech news. That's just not an option for most of them.

        On the other hand, saying in every video about graphics cards "there's more that nVidia won't let us tell you for five years" will definitely help bias the market against nVidia.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You can still review and write articles about Nvidia products without signing the NDA. What's going on is that Nvidia is trading privileged access for control over the articles. Nvidia gives journalists the ability to make money from writing early to press, special access articles about Nvidia products in trade for control over the content.

      Apple does the same thing, it's not so much in the order of signing an NDA but if you are pressed by them to alter the wording of things you don't like refusal means you fall out of favour and don't get access anymore. I don't like the practise either way but at least companies like nvidia are explicit about it rather than companies like apple merely suggesting "hey you probably shouldn't write that because we won't like it".

  • Bait and switch (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ChrisKnight ( 16039 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @07:35PM (#56850960) Homepage
    Sign the NDA; so nvidia feels confident in their control of the flow of information. Then, just stop writing about nvidia. Nothing. Some new autonomous car maker is using an nvidia processor? Refer it to as a 'generic industry ML engine'. When writing about AMD, refer to the competitors as 'unspecific reference cards'. Don't give them a single word of free advertising. Let them choke on their own attempt to smother the media.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Xenx ( 2211586 )
      That's a double-edged sword. The journalists rely on being able to provide news about Nvidia as much as Nvidia relies on them to provide that news. If any journalist stop providing news on Nvidia, the readers will turn somewhere else to get it. If another journalist provides all the news they want under one source, the first journalist is likely to start losing viewership.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jaa101 ( 627731 )

        The journalists rely on being able to provide news about Nvidia as much as Nvidia relies on them to provide that news.

        That's clearly what Nvidia thinks but I seriously doubt it. There are plenty of other things for tech journalists to write about. Also, just because you don't sign the Nvidia NDA and therefore don't have early access to Nvidia propaganda doesn't mean you can't write anything about Nvidia.

        All the same I think a better strategy for journalists is to tell Nvidia that they won't be signing their NDA because it's much too restrictive. Nvidia would get the message much faster that way. You would hope any jour

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Xenx ( 2211586 )

          That's clearly what Nvidia thinks but I seriously doubt it. There are plenty of other things for tech journalists to write about. Also, just because you don't sign the Nvidia NDA and therefore don't have early access to Nvidia propaganda doesn't mean you can't write anything about Nvidia.

          First, having other things to talk about isn't going to save journalists.. in of itself. For all its faults, Nvidia is the winner when it comes to video cards. As long as their cards keep coming out on top, that won't change. When it comes to news related to video cards, you just cannot talk about them. It's almost a point of fact. As to the part about not signing the NDA, that's entirely correct. However, I was responding to someone who's idea was to just stop talking about them altogether. It's ideologica

    • Yeah, good plan, people have been saying the same thing about the media and Trump. The trouble is that media companies like money as much as anybody. Get a few outlets to stop covering nVidia (or Trump) and that will just leave the traffic for competitors to hoover up. You grand plan fails if even a few miscreants won’t go along.

  • Refuse to sign (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rgmoore ( 133276 ) <glandauer@charter.net> on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @07:46PM (#56851010) Homepage

    The only sensible course is to refuse to sign. Any reviewer can still buy their products at retail without having to sign anything; they just don't get advance access to the products or a chance to pick the company's brains. Their reviews will be a little bit later than those who sign and get to use the product before its official release, but the kind of buyer who wants the new product as soon as it's released wasn't going to listen to reviews anyway.

    The other thing to do is to make it explicit that you didn't sign an NDA to get the product you reviewed. There's a reason the most serious reviewers already make sure to review retail products rather than company provided ones: companies have been known to provide a different product to reviewers from what they sell to the general public. Any reviewer who's signing an NDA and getting what may be a custom, tuned product rather than what an ordinary buyer would get isn't trustworthy anyway.

    • most journalists in this space rely on getting sample prior to retail, by the time they are in retail all the reviews and performance tests etc will have already been written by everyone. refusing to buy into the NDA could financially expensive in the lost eyes on sites they get. Sounds like a lose lose situation for them.

  • Osborn effect (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @07:50PM (#56851024)
    I'm guessing they're trying to avoid that. It's been 2 years since they've put out a new card. It'll be 3 or 4 by the time they finally do something. That's going to be a major generational leap, and when it happens it's going to render last gen's cards obsolete. They're worried about folks who stop buying cards waiting for the new stuff.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mentil ( 1748130 )

      That's why the CEO said that the next-gen cards are still a long ways off, but the Osborn effect probably has nothing to do with the onerous NDA. It's a general NDA, rather than covering a specific product.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eth1 ( 94901 )

      I'm guessing they're trying to avoid that. It's been 2 years since they've put out a new card. It'll be 3 or 4 by the time they finally do something. That's going to be a major generational leap, and when it happens it's going to render last gen's cards obsolete. They're worried about folks who stop buying cards waiting for the new stuff.

      Most of the gamers I know (including me) have ALREADY stopped buying cards until the next gen comes out.

  • NDAs have an expiration date? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The one forced on me was lifetime. They said if you don't sign it, then McDonalds is hiring. I ended up quitting a few years later anyway, the NDA was only to hide their "fuck the customer out of as much money as possible" business practices.

  • This reads more like an employment NDA than a journalist NDA. This kind of NDA is pretty common when interviewing for or accepting a job at a tech company.

    • An NDA without a termination date? I mean, for an ongoing employee, sure the termination date is based on when the employer/employee relationship ends. But open-ended like that?

      • You can put whatever you want in a contract. And then if the employee has the time and money to fight it in court they could eventually prove it was unenforceable.

  • Sure to backfire ! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by redelm ( 54142 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @08:17PM (#56851098) Homepage

    NVidia can ask/require anything they want -- that doesn't mean reputable journalists [where?] will agree. They just won't review NVidia products as early, or at all. NVidia loses the free publicity in a very-short-term effort to reduce negative reviews. Are they going out of business? I thought they had leading vidcards. They must think not.

    The rest of us will know the disreputable journalists by their early NVidia reviews. Just makes me buy Radeon.

    • "reputable journalists" don't review video cards, product reviews are not journalism.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by redelm ( 54142 )

        "journalism" is a difficult-to-define word. The closest I can come is from the french "journal", newspaper or frequent periodical. Journalists are those who produce the content, hopefully distinct from copywriters who produce the advertisments.

        Put another way, you are saying the NYT review of books and theatre reviews are also not journalism.

  • Increasing Competition, nVidia Falling Behind (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nateman1352 ( 971364 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @09:44PM (#56851332)

    This is probably nVidia's response to the market heating up.

    First, it looks like AMD Vega 20 is going to outperform Pascal [wccftech.com]. Based on remarks from nVidia's CEO [rockpapershotgun.com], the next-gen Turing architecture is probably going to be released in 2019 [rockpapershotgun.com]. Since Vega 20 will probably be out this year, for the first time in a while AMD will hold the GPU performance crown for about one year, maybe more if Turning doesn't deliver. On top of that, for the first time in a decade Intel is now a big wildcard. Current rumor is Intel will be releasing a discrete GPU in 2020 [pcgamer.com]. Intel hired the guy from AMD that lead the development of Vega, so chances are Intel actually means business this time.

    To sum it all up, things are not looking very good for nVidia right now. So they are acting early to prevent journalists from reporting a possible fall from grace if it were to happen in the near future.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by mentil ( 1748130 )

      Lisa Su already said their next-gen consumer graphics cards would release early next year. Apparently Nvidia is sitting on lots of old stock and wants it to clear before they pull the trigger on Turing, which is apparently waiting in the wings. It's also possible they are wary of releasing 12nm Turing now, then a 7nm update in less than a year to compete with AMD's 7nm cards. With no competition now they might just wait a year.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You're forgetting one important thing: influence on the industry.

      Case in point, CUDA. CUDA right now is de facto API for parallel computing. Its competitor, OpenCL, is nowhere to be seen. Even Apple left OpenCL. Just look at HPC scene, CUDA is everywhere.

      And then there is PhysX, Iray GPU rendering, etc.

      Now where are Nvidia competitor's offerings?

  • So they don't want their cards reviewed. So be it. nVidia who?

  • Fuck you Nvidia (Score:3)

    by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @10:42PM (#56851502)

    Fuck you Nvidia. And yes, I am in a position to cost you sales.

  • Still butthurt about the GPP I guess (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @11:03PM (#56851564)

    nVidia is mad that the Geforce Partner Program got scrapped due to negative press. So instead of just taking the L and moving on with life, they're now going to try to ram a different but equally awful idea down journalists' throats instead.

  • Sounds like they’re trying to control the narrative and that’s usually a sign their upcoming product sucks. I’m going to guess it’s really good at compute workload and barely faster than the GTX 1080Ti for gaming.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by mentil ( 1748130 )

      They can control the narrative until cards actually ship and independents test them and blow the whistle, which will make them look bad. If reviewers suddenly stop testing in apps/games they always test in, because those benchmarks make Nvidia look bad, then it'll look very suspicious. Nvidia would only make extra money from preorders (and pray people don't return them or resent Nvidia afterward) and thus likely not be worth it.

  • NVIDIA is really taking a bold step with this one, nice move http://www.naijadailyfeed.com/ [naijadailyfeed.com]

  • Is it that bad? (Score:4, Informative)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Wednesday June 27, 2018 @06:43AM (#56852606) Journal
    This seems like the product of either Nvidia's lawyers going a but crazy or something not going well on their end:

    It's already the case that tech journalism is strongly 'access' based; whether the company likes you or not pretty much dictates whether you get review samples in time to have a full write-up on release day or get ignored in favor of people who do(which, given how much of the interest is in cutting edge stuff really hurts). However, unlike other 'access' dominated areas(reporting on government or military, say); the window where undesirable 3rd parties can be kept away is limited: you can uninvite them to E3 hype sessions and make sure that they don't have a new product far enough ahead of time to be able to show comprehensive benchmarks on release day; but you are still releasing a consumer product with distribution controlled only by price.

    Someone trying to get a Pentagon story without cooperation could spend years or decades trying to FOIA stuff or have it undergo automatic classification review due to age. Someone writing about video cards can have unlimited physical access to a sample for under $1000(except certain pro/specialty parts) as soon after release day as they can find one in stock.

    Given that, I don't really understand what Nvidia is seeking to achieve here: it's already pretty easy to get tech sites that depend on having day-one hardware reviews and 'exclusive' pre-release to toe the line; but also pretty much impossible to keep a lid on people who are willing to test retail samples without your cooperation; or to clamp down on anonymous sources giving The Register material to write snarky articles about your underfill woes or the like. What is it that isn't currently controlled that Nvidia thinks it needs to(and has any hope of) control?

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