Symantec caves in over product recall
Software CyberMedia wins copyright wrangle over utility product.
Symantec has finally bowed to legal pressure and recalled from the channel its Norton Uninstall Deluxe (NUD) after a US Federal court issued a restraining order in response to the vendor's failure to comply with a previous injunction.
The move comes just days after Symantec threw its channel into confusion when it refused to acknowledge the preliminary injunction granted on 8 September as part of its copyright lawsuit with rival vendor CyberMedia.
Symantec claimed the judge's order did not require the product to be recalled because the vendor had already created a 'clean room' version of its software with the offending code - allegedly copied from a CyberMedia product - removed.
But it neglected to take account of the full content of the order, which stated: 'The Court expresses no opinion whatsoever as to the adequacy of Symantec's clean room efforts to date.'
Prior to the restraining order, on 11 September, Axel Lagerborg, software manager at Computer 2000, was unsure of the situation with regard to the NUD. He was contacted by Tom Ruiter, UK channel sales manager at Symantec, who told him to ignore reports that the product was to be recalled.
Lagerborg said C2000 would continue distributing NUD until he was told otherwise, adding: 'As far as I can remember, there has never been a product recall because of a legal ruling.'
Richard Saunders, manager of corporate communications at Symantec based in Cupertino California, admitted to PC Dealer that the court order prohibited the product being shipped through distributors.
But he claimed it did not apply to resellers and retailers.
'We have followed the judge's order to the letter', Saunders argued.
'The order does not affect stock held by resellers and retailers.'
He also claimed that Symantec had replaced all the offending copies of the software held by its distributors.
According to US estimates, the recall will cost Symantec a total of $5 million.