Guru3D.com
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • Channels
    • Archive
  • DOWNLOADS
    • New Downloads
    • Categories
    • Archive
  • GAME REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
    • Rig of the Month
    • Join ROTM
    • PC Buyers Guide
    • Guru3D VGA Charts
    • Editorials
    • Dated content
  • HARDWARE REVIEWS
    • Videocards
    • Processors
    • Audio
    • Motherboards
    • Memory and Flash
    • SSD Storage
    • Chassis
    • Media Players
    • Power Supply
    • Laptop and Mobile
    • Smartphone
    • Networking
    • Keyboard Mouse
    • Cooling
    • Search articles
    • Knowledgebase
    • More Categories
  • FORUMS
  • NEWSLETTER
  • CONTACT

New Reviews
Corsair QL120 and QL140 RGB fan review
Promo: Windows 10 Pro for $13 With Office 2016 For $33
Corsair Void RGB Elite Wireless Headset review
Team Group PD400 Portable SSD review
AMD Athlon 3000G review
Team Group T-Force Delta Max 1 TB SSD review
Guru3D Rig of the Month - November 2019
ASUS ROG Rampage VI Extreme Encore review
Toshiba RC500 500GB NVMe M.2 SSD review
Promo: URcdkey Black Friday Windows 10 Pro for $12

New Downloads
3DMark Download v2.11.6846 + Port Royale
HWiNFO64 Download v6.20
AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 19.12.1 driver download
Crystal DiskMark Download v7.0.0f
AMD Ryzen Master Utility Download v2.1.0.1424
Quake II RTX Download v1.2
GeForce 441.41 WHQL driver download
Oculus TrayTool download v0.86.3.1
AMD Chipset Drivers Download v1.11.22.0454
Download AMD RAID Driver (SATA, NVMe RAID) v9.3.0.38


New Forum Topics
RX 580 problem SanDisk SSD Plus Goes 2 TB on SATA3 Review: Corsair QL120 and QL140 RGB fans MSI RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio watercooled getting spool coils Ryzen 4000 and X670 scheduled for late 2020 Windows 10 random shutdown 5G ON: T-Mobile 5G Network is Activated in the USA Fine Utilise Power of RadeonPRO Software & SweetFX Part 2 Guru3D 2019 December 6th contest: Win a Ryzen 5 3600X (6c/12t) processor AMD Roadmaps mention RDNA2, ZEN3 and ZEN4




Guru3D.com » News » New NVIDIA Press Embargo Stirs Things Up

New NVIDIA Press Embargo Stirs Things Up

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 06/26/2018 11:38 AM | source: | 117 comment(s)
New NVIDIA Press Embargo Stirs Things Up

Roughly a week media should have received a new long-term NDA from NVIDIA. This NDA is an agreement between NVIDIA and the media outlet. The new embargo is, however, stirring up a few things for some websites. 

In particular website Heise is not rather happy about the new embargo. In fact, Heise feels the new non-disclosure agreement is so wrong that felt the need to publish the non-disclosure agreement as an article online on their website. According to Heise, the document is in violation of journalistic principles. They (much like us) received the document on June 20, with the request to sign it within two days. The document itself is designed in such a manner that it's benefitting NVIDIA, e.g. favoring Nvidia. The agreement is long-term, and states that confidential information must be kept secret for five years, but if it concerns a 'professional trade secret', that confidentiality will never pass. This, in theory, could mean that journalists never could reveal a specific leaked detail from another source. Heise made it clear that they will not sign the NDA and considered it their journalistic duty by "creating transparency" with publishing the document in its entirety.

That said, allow me to give you my take (the Guru3D side) of this topic slash story. Press embargoes have been here for years and from anyone. From AIB partners we work with, to (at the time) Intel, to Nvidia towards AMD. If a new Intel Chipset motherboard is released? We receive such NDA from MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte and onwards. So basically, the minute you get your hands on samples that are not released yet, you'll need to have signed a non-disclosure agreement. While I do not feel a need to defend NVIDIA whatsoever, the new long-term NDA from NVIDIA is not very different from older ones ergo, I was not at all that surprised by its contents. Interesting, however, is the line: "Shall not: post news stories based on confidential information". But here again, that's not very different from what we have seen in the past and certainly not very different from NDAs we receive from other parties in the technology industry.

Why the new NDA is stirring and heating things up so much for certain media, I can only speculate about. I truly think the GPP discussion ignited some things, a certain disgruntled feel about NVIDIA, trying to force certain practices. In all my years of posted news and articles, we've never had to fight with NVIDIA over any content we posted, and we do post it all. That doesn't mean however these contracts should be taken lightly. As time passes and with everything that is going on in the world in matters of privacy, objectivity and the tech industry as a whole, perhaps it's time for NVIDIA to look into remodeling such embargoes to gain trust. We signed the NDA, we can opt-out anytime. Will be doing anything different compared to the past? No Sir. Do we expect heat on our content from NVIDIA? No Sir, not at all. And if they do, NVIDIA will shoot themselves in the foot as the press as an entirety is something they cannot control. Hey, and if we disagree about a request that NVIDIA would make, we can opt-out of any embargo anytime.

While its good to address these topics open and transparent I just feel that the reality is also that the new embargo really isn't that different from the older ones, which Heise certainly signed time after time at any event and product release. It's not cool to have to sign NDAs, but unfortunately, it comes with the territory of testing, reviewing and writing news about products that have not been released. I would love to live without them, but also understand why they exist. Each media outlet will have a different opinion about that, of course. Which we totally respect.

Below you can read the new long-term NDA.



New NVIDIA Press Embargo Stirs Things Up New NVIDIA Press Embargo Stirs Things Up




Rate this story
Rating:

« New Realtek RTS5762 and RTS5763DL NVMe SSD controllers reach 3.5 GB/s · New NVIDIA Press Embargo Stirs Things Up · Review: ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX580 8G OC »

Related Stories

New NVIDIA GPU is named at Reuters, called Turing - 02/13/2018 01:52 PM
In an article on Reuters, they talk about the king craze and how well that benefits NVIDIA with prices shooting through the roof. More interesting is that the article mentioned Nvidia would release a...

New Nvidia GeForce Titan X is coming very soon - a collector's edition - 11/03/2017 05:46 PM
Nvidia in its twittter page posted a video, teasing a new Collector's Edition Titan Xp. The video is meant as a viral to create some momentum of the new card....

EK unveils new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 water blocks - 05/24/2016 08:28 AM
EK is proud to introduce full-cover liquid cooling solution for NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 series graphics cards, based on Pascal GP104 graphics processor....

New NVIDIA GeForce driver 358.66 shows Vulkan Pascal and Volta support - 11/04/2015 05:13 PM
Interesting, in our forums Krzyslaw spotted that over at laptopvideo2go there is a 358.66 driver that shows support for Vulkan, Pascal and Volta ? ...

New Nvidia Head Quarters back on track after delay - 04/07/2015 11:12 AM
Thoughy delayed by a year or two Nvidia is now putting their futuristic Santa Clara campus project back on track, though with a new design. The graphics chipmaker confirmed on Tuesday that it would ...


8 pages 1 2 3 4 > »


RealNC
Senior Member



Posts: 3111
Joined: 2011-11-24

#5560375 Posted on: 06/26/2018 11:59 AM
I think the core issue is that if you are not allowed to report on what you want, you are not a journalist. You're just a press release outlet. In other words, a PR tool. Heise, AFAICT, does actual journalism, which involves reporting on matters that NVidia (or any other company) would prefer to not be reported about.

Imagine if this was happening in politics. Like if the BBC signed an NDA with the British government not to report on any matters obtained through informers. Ever.

Of course politics and computer hardware are not the same thing, but journalistic integrity for sites that actually do journalism should still be important, regardless of the content matter, and signing NDAs that never expire or are unreasonably long means you can't be trusted by the consumers.

Silva
Senior Member



Posts: 966
Joined: 2013-06-04

#5560377 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:11 PM
I'm disappointed about you signing this HH.
It's normal to have NDA so you can get the reviewing samples early, and release the review at the same time as everyone else.
But this is different, what Nvidia wants is that no one make news posts about leaked information of new products, this is not only anti journalism but anti consumer too.
It's too soon after GPP, and it's right at the same time we hear about Nvidia having too much GPU stock. And CEO said on the beginning of this month we would have to wait a long time for new GPUs.
I'm truly disappointed in Guru3D for signing up to this BS and hope more people like Heise don't put their trousers down for Nvidia.

reix2x
Senior Member



Posts: 253
Joined: 2010-01-20

#5560378 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:17 PM
i would love to read the GPP also.

GDILord
Junior Member



Posts: 6
Joined: 2017-05-19

#5560379 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:17 PM
I, too, am disappointed by you signing this Hilbert due to such an extended duration for some of the clauses. Over the years I've grown not only to really enjoy your writing style and your in-depth reviews, but trust you and your content as well.

Edit: Clarified that my disappointment is about the durations of some of the clauses, not that the NDA exists.

fantaskarsef
Senior Member



Posts: 11021
Joined: 2014-07-21

#5560380 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:17 PM
Maybe @Hilbert Hagedoorn can answer me this:

What's the worst that can happen to any such journalist NOT signing that NDA? That you're late with your articles when the NDA dates lift, taking you longer to prepare the numbers and graphs etc.?
What does Nvidia offer those that actually sign it in the first place? Inside scoops that you're not allowed to write about?

I'm not sure why anybody would sign that, besides the point that these days, the first to put out such information on their site seemingly earns the most money with it?

Hilbert Hagedoorn
Don Vito Corleone



Posts: 36460
Joined: 2000-02-22

#5560383 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:24 PM
Everybody, everywhere in all media signs these and have been doing so for two decades.
Not signing them, =no samples, no info beforehand, no technical briefings. NDAs have been here ever since I am in the technology field since 1997. This one isn't that different.

We'll post regardless of what an NDA states, the good and the bad. Nothing changes on this end and it's as simple as that.

Mufflore
Senior Member



Posts: 11409
Joined: 2010-05-22

#5560385 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:30 PM
What will be the penalty for breaking the NDA in that fashion?

They have shot themselves in the foot behaving this way.
I no longer want to read news about NVidia products after all this.

airbud7
Senior Member



Posts: 7560
Joined: 2011-07-20

#5560387 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:35 PM
once "the cats out of the bag" from some other site ....is it open season on that info?

Wintergreen
Junior Member



Posts: 3
Joined: 2009-04-29

#5560388 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:39 PM
Isn't this 'recipient shall use confidential information solely for the benefit of NVIDIA' the most conerning part? What precisely is meant by that? If they ship a bad GPU, you can't say that? As surely that would not be in 'their benefit'? While people may have been signing these for years, perhaps it is indeed time this was brought out in the light so people know what they are reading exactly, and if anything has been censored.

Hilbert Hagedoorn
Don Vito Corleone



Posts: 36460
Joined: 2000-02-22

#5560393 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:48 PM
What will be the penalty for breaking the NDA in that fashion?


None really, I can remember one website who posted an entire GeForce GTX review way before release, like weeks. They have been blacklisted for a year I think, e.g. received no further samples and info. That's as bad, as I heard, as it went.

We'll see where this heads though, less stringent NDAs would definitely have my preference. But as stated, it's been part of this industry for decades and I do not see that changing anytime soon.

GDILord
Junior Member



Posts: 6
Joined: 2017-05-19

#5560396 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:50 PM
once "the cats out of the bag" from some other site ....is it open season on that info?

IANAL, but it appears that the NDA restricts the news outlet to only publish information that is under NDA once Nvidia says that it's time to post it.

So if MegaSuperCoolAwesomeGraphicsDotCom publishes information on Nvidia's next graphics card before the NDA (for whatever reason, maybe they didn't sign an NDA or maybe they just flat out broke it,) Guru3D is not allowed to publish news based on MegaSuperCoolAwesomeGraphicsDotCom's article because it didn't come from Nvidia or one of Nvidia's appointed PR agencies.

AGAIN, I am not a lawyer, that's just my understanding of it. @Hilbert: If my understanding is correct, can we still expect non-Nvidia sanctioned articles and news from you that come from non-Nvidia sources for information that you are under NDA about? This is not a dig against you, this is a genuine concern.

RealNC
Senior Member



Posts: 3111
Joined: 2011-11-24

#5560397 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:50 PM
Guru3D signing this is not really an big issue, IMO. It's a product review site and press release outlet.

A site like Heise, Ars Technica, The Register or The Inquirer signing this is what is, IMO, unacceptable.

vbetts
Moderator



Posts: 14715
Joined: 2006-07-04

#5560399 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:53 PM
Pretty much I think this boils down to interpretation.

Would Nvidia consider one saying the new GTXZ 203940 is good at playing games at 16k, but requires a buttload of power to do so bad? Or the card is quiet but only has 2 fans when it needs 6?

I also think this is more towards certain communities, and Nvidia's way of keeping some of these in check that have had a crap ton to say about GPP. Communities like Guru3d, which hasn't said anything horrible about a product to the point where it's just insulting it, are safe.

NaturalViolence
Member



Posts: 77
Joined: 2009-10-01

#5560400 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:54 PM
Isn't this 'recipient shall use confidential information solely for the benefit of NVIDIA' the most conerning part? What precisely is meant by that? If they ship a bad GPU, you can't say that? As surely that would not be in 'their benefit'? While people may have been signing these for years, perhaps it is indeed time this was brought out in the light so people know what they are reading exactly, and if anything has been censored.


It just means you can't disclose confidential information without their permission. This has been a standard clause in most NDA's for ages so I'm not sure why all of the sudden people are upset with it. It doesn't stop you from writing a negative review or disclosing negative test results.

Pimpiklem
Senior Member



Posts: 162
Joined: 2018-06-15

#5560401 Posted on: 06/26/2018 12:54 PM
i'm curious.
You 1080ti owners.
What games are you unable to play at acceptable frame rates justifying your new gpu purchase ?
If its a 20 to 25% performance increase why bother ....
I am interested to know the games you need more performance.

8 pages 1 2 3 4 > »


Post New Comment
Click here to post a comment for this news story on the message forum.


Guru3D.com © 2019