A quick word about NDA's and all

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zack Whittaker \(R2 Mentor\)
  • Start date Start date
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Zack Whittaker \(R2 Mentor\)

Just want to get a few things sorted here... because there's a lot of
repitition and a lot of anger it seems...

1) The latest build of Windows Vista is 5342. Because it's not a CTP and
because it's not a Beta, it's purely an interim build. They released it
because they are heading towards the milestone of Beta 2 of which *will* be
public. Expect this in April/May perhaps.

2) They wanted the technical testers (the guys who have access to Connect
and the beta newsgroups) to see that they have fixed loads of bugs ready for
Beta 2... a bit like a confidence boost to us testers.

3) *NOBODY* else other than the technical testers - so MSDN and TechNet, and
TechNet Plus, and Microsoft Partners, nobody gets the build other than the
technical testers and there's a 32-bit and a 64-bit version waiting for
those who haven't downloaded it yet.

4) Please nobody keep going on about NDA's and violations and all that...
there isn't an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) with Windows Vista because
it's such a big beta, they can't expect people to be quiet about it. They do
have however, a Terms of Conditions which actually comes with Microsoft
Connect and not the beta program itself.

5) We *are* allowed to blog about Vista, as well as post screenshots, and
articles and tweaks and anything funnily enough, with Vista. The things we
are *not* allowed to do, are redistribute downloads that we have access to.
So, Connect folks can't dish out Connect downloads to other people - MSDN
people can't dish out downloads from their sites... otherwise you can expect
to get your subscription cancelled with no refund, or get kicked out the
beta program

I hope this sorts things out - and hopefully gets some things cleared up :o)

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!
 
BTW: anyone correct me if I'm wrong on the 2nd and 4th one... pretty sure
I'm correct on that, but just want to make sure :o)

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!


--- Original message follows ---
""Scøtt Lovegrove [ScottIsAFool]""
 
Kevin knows this. He is just a Moron.

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

Zack Whittaker (R2 Mentor) said:
BTW: anyone correct me if I'm wrong on the 2nd and 4th one... pretty sure
I'm correct on that, but just want to make sure :o)

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!


--- Original message follows ---
""Scøtt Lovegrove [ScottIsAFool]""
Well said that man :)

Scøtt
Live Messenger FAQs - http://wlm.scottisafool.co.uk/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thank you, Zack! You've hit the nail on the head, and now, maybe the Beta
Police will cease and desist. :-} NOT gonna happen, though. Because Beta
Police have one track minds...

The only thing you missed is that we're also not allowed to "repeat"
anything that's said in the beta newsgroups. Like some dipstick did when
they lifted Wendy's post and gave it to Neowin, signature and all.
 
<very wide grin>

Kevin knows this. He is just a Moron.

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

Zack Whittaker (R2 Mentor) said:
BTW: anyone correct me if I'm wrong on the 2nd and 4th one... pretty sure
I'm correct on that, but just want to make sure :o)

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and
not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!


--- Original message follows ---
""Scøtt Lovegrove [ScottIsAFool]""
Well said that man :)

Scøtt
Live Messenger FAQs - http://wlm.scottisafool.co.uk/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Well, it makes Wendy even more famous then she is eh <G>
Does annoy me how people flaunt all the rules to get there first.... what
about Paul Thurrott and his site? How the hell does he get the releases when
he's not even on Connect? :-o

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!


--- Original message follows ---
 
As if Wendy can stand any more fame; what she needs is fortune! She's
provided it to us, that's for sure!

Well, that T guy's got a connection somewhere within Microsoft, and somebody
else is turning a blind eye. The only thing I can come up with. Somebody's
gotta be the bad guy; the infamous one; the one everybody loves to hate. And
I'm sure PT's making a bundle by being that guy.

One other thought: It could be that Microsoft is using the Win Supersite for
its own reasons. :-}

Personally, I'd rather be in Wendy's shoes. Everybody loves Wendy! Wendy
Rocks!

Zack Whittaker (R2 Mentor) said:
Well, it makes Wendy even more famous then she is eh <G>
Does annoy me how people flaunt all the rules to get there first.... what
about Paul Thurrott and his site? How the hell does he get the releases
when he's not even on Connect? :-o

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and
not of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we
cleared that up!


--- Original message follows ---
Click to expand...
 
All I know is, information posted in the private beta newsgroups and on
connect.microsoft.com is private, nothing else and some designated chat
sessions.
--
--
Andre
Windows Connect | http://www.windowsconnected.com
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta

Zack Whittaker (R2 Mentor) said:
BTW: anyone correct me if I'm wrong on the 2nd and 4th one... pretty sure
I'm correct on that, but just want to make sure :o)

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and
not of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we
cleared that up!


--- Original message follows ---
""Scøtt Lovegrove [ScottIsAFool]""
Well said that man :)

Scøtt
Live Messenger FAQs - http://wlm.scottisafool.co.uk/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Although if we ask the right people nicely, we can sometimes post some chat
sessions, but all depends on what's for the public eye and what's not :o)
Wendy's usually OK with it, but it does depend :o)

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!


--- Original message follows ---
Andre Da Costa said:
All I know is, information posted in the private beta newsgroups and on
connect.microsoft.com is private, nothing else and some designated chat
sessions.
--
--
Andre
Windows Connect | http://www.windowsconnected.com
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta

Zack Whittaker (R2 Mentor) said:
BTW: anyone correct me if I'm wrong on the 2nd and 4th one... pretty sure
I'm correct on that, but just want to make sure :o)

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and
not of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we
cleared that up!


--- Original message follows ---
""Scøtt Lovegrove [ScottIsAFool]""
Well said that man :)

Scøtt
Live Messenger FAQs - http://wlm.scottisafool.co.uk/

Zack Whittaker (R2 Mentor) wrote:
Just want to get a few things sorted here... because there's a lot of
repitition and a lot of anger it seems...

1) The latest build of Windows Vista is 5342. Because it's not a CTP
and because it's not a Beta, it's purely an interim build. They
released it because they are heading towards the milestone of Beta 2 of
which *will* be public. Expect this in April/May perhaps.

2) They wanted the technical testers (the guys who have access to
Connect and the beta newsgroups) to see that they have fixed loads of
bugs ready for Beta 2... a bit like a confidence boost to us testers.

3) *NOBODY* else other than the technical testers - so MSDN and
TechNet, and TechNet Plus, and Microsoft Partners, nobody gets the
build other than the technical testers and there's a 32-bit and a
64-bit version waiting for those who haven't downloaded it yet.

4) Please nobody keep going on about NDA's and violations and all
that... there isn't an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) with Windows
Vista because it's such a big beta, they can't expect people to be
quiet about it. They do have however, a Terms of Conditions which
actually comes with Microsoft Connect and not the beta program itself.

5) We *are* allowed to blog about Vista, as well as post screenshots,
and articles and tweaks and anything funnily enough, with Vista. The
things we are *not* allowed to do, are redistribute downloads that we
have access to. So, Connect folks can't dish out Connect downloads to
other people - MSDN people can't dish out downloads from their sites...
otherwise you can expect to get your subscription cancelled with no
refund, or get kicked out the beta program

I hope this sorts things out - and hopefully gets some things cleared
up :o)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Nancy said:
As if Wendy can stand any more fame; what she needs is fortune! She's
provided it to us, that's for sure!

Well, that T guy's got a connection somewhere within Microsoft, and
somebody else is turning a blind eye. The only thing I can come up with.
Somebody's gotta be the bad guy; the infamous one; the one everybody
loves to hate. And I'm sure PT's making a bundle by being that guy.

One other thought: It could be that Microsoft is using the Win Supersite
for its own reasons. :-}

Personally, I'd rather be in Wendy's shoes. Everybody loves Wendy! Wendy
Rocks!

Zack Whittaker (R2 Mentor) said:
Well, it makes Wendy even more famous then she is eh <G>
Does annoy me how people flaunt all the rules to get there first....
what about Paul Thurrott and his site? How the hell does he get the
releases when he's not even on Connect? :-o

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so,
and not of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad
we cleared that up!


--- Original message follows ---
Click to expand...

AMEN to that Nancy. Wendy ROCKS!!!!! As for Paul Thurrott, I think
he's a semi-official reviewer for Microsoft. One of the Press Pass
people, if you will. If you look at WindowsITPro, a lot of the
contributors (read Ben Smith, for one) are actual Microsoft employees.
So, I figure that since the magazine is that tight with Microsoft, it
stands to reason that Paul (and anyone else working there) will have an
inside track on products.

I've never met him, but I have looked at his site. And I've found some
useful information there. So, I do recommend it to people. He may be
arrogant and whatever else people say about him. But, if his
information is right-on, that's more important.
Click to expand...
 
Well, mostly pretty much, but "we" as used implies that "we" have
access under one-and-same terms, which is probably not so.
For many years the rule of thumb I have applied is that if MS has
indicated it is OK or has disclosed existence/character of to public,
then it is out from under my NDA terms. Otherwise, if it was under
it remains under.
 
Zack said:
5) We *are* allowed to blog about Vista, as well as post screenshots, and
articles and tweaks and anything funnily enough, with Vista.
Click to expand...

I think the only limitation here is that if you do post screenshots, or
write about it, make sure you properly attribute it as Microsoft Windows
Vista.
 
But of course yeh :o)

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!


--- Original message follows ---
 
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