Nvidia Looks To Gag Journalists With Multi-Year Blanket NDAs (hardocp.com) 126
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.
[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.
Corporate Success! (Score:5, Insightful)
Nvidia downgrades the independent press into a marketing tool.
Nvidia will be the envy of all other companies.
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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]
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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.
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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)
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.
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Think about what you said, because logically by your argument how do you know that you are seeing reality as it really is
Logically it does since people who replied claimed that the press is NOT an arm of big business but yet the press IS a fucking corporation, that's retard level of perceptual breakdown of these peoples brains. It also proves they've never opened a history book in their life. When you or anyone replies to my post I can immediately spot how ignorant you are and whether you know any history at all or have even opened a history book.
If corporations would do the below, what else might they do? But that might o
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"press has always been an arm of big business"
Wrong.
The US government and big business are not seperate entities. You are historically illiterate and without a clue.
https://youtu.be/CvZRsdHgxgA?t... [youtu.be]
Re:Corporate Success! (Score:5, Insightful)
Pretty sure this ends up hurting nvidia more than helping them. Which is a shame because i quite like nvidia.
If reporters cant report on their products, the only exposure they will get will be overwealmingly negative from normal people reporting problems.
And at the same time forcing such an nda giving everyone the impression the news from nvidia is more bad than good. never mind I guess, should be another 10 years or so before i want a new gfx card, and who knows what will be on the market by then.
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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)
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.
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If they sign that paper, they are enslaved to Nvidia and can only do a favorable review. That NDA is more of an Usurp your Independence Agreement.
Nvidia deserves to get raked over the coals for this one
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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: I'm missing something (Score:3, Insightful)
No, the way that day one matters is if the review market sells out on day one.
Specifically, if your review is not up on day one, sites like reddit and slash dot will not link to it. This massively impacts your revenue.
Further, because no one is linking to you, your search rank falls, which means that you also donâ(TM)t get hits from google. Now youâ(TM)re in for double trouble on your revenue being hit.
Re: I'm missing something (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, you can be a week late and slashdot will still post it as breaking news.
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"To be fair, you can be a week late and slashdot will still post it as breaking news. Twice."
FTFY
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And the AMD fawners are also in a reality distortion field.
Remember that every Ryzen CPU has hideous unpatched PSP bugs in it. Yes, they make good GPUs, but when your CPU can have both hyperthreading attacks coupled to unknown PSP states, it's not worth used toilet paper. That's not to pimp Intel-- they have their own woes.
NVIDIA does no one any favors with this draconian NDA.
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... people don't wait until they are ready to upgrade and then go out and read reviews...
I have far to much a life to be reading the reviews of every cool little gadget or other product on the day of release!
Besides, with my luck I would read a review on the day of release, remember that review when I wanted to upgrade, then buy a P90! Which I did. I now read reviews when I'm ready to upgrade... This can still result in buying bad products, but at least I feel like I'm trying!
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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".
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You mean when Google translated it, instead of an actual person who speaks German.
I don't speak much, but on reading TFA I understood the colloquialism.
Bait and switch (Score:5, Insightful)
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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
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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
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Refuse to sign (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Osborn effect (Score:4, Interesting)
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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.
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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)
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.
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Or earlier stage the technology. I fully understand when people who have $ and are trying to hire their tech team want an NDA.
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Neither did Intel, and we see how well that's working for them.
Did they share the wrong NDA? (Score:2)
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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?
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Oh, I mean, I get why the company would want it. I've just never seen anyone willing to sign such an open-ended NDA. I've seen people willing to sign one measured in years, but never eternal.
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I've signed one that's eternal. I got well remunerated for doing so, and the ND clause was explicitly limited to something that I don't have any need or desire to discuss anyway.
That said, I could probably break it now and nobody would give a shit. The company probably no longer even have a record of it; their data retention policy will have mandated its destruction by now.
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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.
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Far better to just strike it from the contract to begin with than try to get the contract partially fixed later.
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As long as you're OK with the offer being withdrawn at that point.
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Their refusal to open up their specifications to ever increasingly popular Linux systems will be the death of them.
Their proprietary drivers are still better than the free ones or the free or proprietary AMD drivers...this has been the status quo for well over a decade with no reason to believe it will change, I think they'll be just fine.
Linux represents a tiny minority of desktop usage and it's only a tiny minority of that minority that use it because all the software is Free Software and even smaller portion of that extremely small set of users cares about cutting edge graphics performance to the point of needing the
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If you don't sign you don't get a card to review.
You mean if I sign this NDA they'll send me free cards so I can write (good things) about them? And keep the card?
Where do I sign up!
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Well, exactly. It makes this a really interesting way to gauge the integrity of online video card reviewers.
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Journalists need to tell you about everything. Just wait for the story about how someone felt when they read this story! It's shocking and your doctor doesn't want you to know!
Sure to backfire ! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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"reputable journalists" don't review video cards, product reviews are not journalism.
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"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.
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People who review books and plays are called critics, not journalists.
Increasing Competition, nVidia Falling Behind (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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3dfx was actually in a really good position when they folded. They had $500 million owed, a military contract to provide chips for Apache Choppers. Yes, they were out of active capital, but I doubt there would have been any bank that would have refused them a loan.
The biggest problem was the stupid CEO they hired. The STB pur
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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.
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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?
nVidia who? (Score:2)
Fuck you Nvidia (Score:3)
Fuck you Nvidia. And yes, I am in a position to cost you sales.
Still butthurt about the GPP I guess (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
So the GTX 1180 is going to suck, huh? (Score:2)
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.
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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.
Big leap for NVIDIA (Score:1)
Is it that bad? (Score:4, Informative)
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?