p2pnet - rss feed: Sandvine — branded
p2pnet news P2P | Freedom:- In a SandWhine, traffic shaper Sandvine tried to intimidate p2pnet with a tacky ‘take it down in 30 minutes or else’ demand.
‘It’ was a parody of the company logo which inspired Sandvine “AVP, Marketing and Corporate Communications” Amanda Weber (that’s her in the front) to fire an email demanding ‘it’ be removed, forthwith.
The pic appeared in our story on SandWhine’s grossly misnamed FairShare bandwidth management product.
“The use of Sandvine’s logo on the page noted above is an infringement of our trademark and copyright,” she said, incorrectly, going on, “I have referred this matter to our legal counsel and demand that you immediately take down the logo and not use it in any manner. We expect it to be down within 30 minutes from now.”
“Hey Sandvine,” says protocol and networking expert Robb Topolski in a Reader’s Write to the story we subsequently posted, going on >>>
This is to let you know, Sandvine, that use of Sandvine’s corporate identity in a news story about Sandvine’s products is a completely fair use under U.S. law and, most likely, Canada and the U.K. (points of Sandvine’s presence).
The very reason Sandvine would select a particular Sandvine font and Sandvine color is to help non-Sandvine people associate Sandvine’s name in context with Sandvine’s marketplace. While Sandvine is the owner of Sandvine’s marks and names, Sandvine’s name and products are both … in the news and industry buzz.
You’ve developed this Sandvine branding for the public to use to identify Sandvine, and now you dare complain when Sandvine’s name, and the fonts and colors chosen by Sandvine to represent Sandvine are somehow chosen by a reporter issuing news about Sandvine? Why not also take him to task for mentioning your name, Sandvine, which is no more and no less part of Sandvine’s corporate identity (e.g. — they all mean the same thing —- Sandvine).
If this Sandvine news report instead carried a picture of “Mayor McCheese” in front of the “Golden Arches,” would Sandvine be more or less pleased about the impact of Sandvine’s “Brand and ID” efforts?
Hey Sandvine? So go pound Sand(vine)!
- Robb Topolski
PS: Get out of the business of selling Sandvine products to customers who want to keep Sandvine’s business relationship with them a secret. Didn’t Sandvine learn anything the first time, or does Sandvine need to lose another 80% in market equity?
Interestingly, Topolski was the first to point out Comcast’s now much publicized traffic throttling efforts in the US, and p2pnet did the same for Bell in Canada.
“Sandvine, the company behind the devices used by Comcast and others to block BitTorrent, has just introduced a network management tool called FairShare that aims to address Net Neutrality concerns,” said Janko Roettgers in newteevee.com, going on >>>
Comcast isn’t the only one that could benefit from FairShare.
Sandvine itself has been looking for a way to win back customers that were scared off by potential policy implications.
The company saw its revenue fall 46 percent in the first quarter of 2008, a downturn that it attributed to customers delaying purchases because of the Net Neutrality debate.
Stay tuned.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
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May 23rd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Well not all news is always good news. Matters not if it is a product, a company, or an idea. It’s not odd in these days of hearing of some corp getting its feathers ruffled when news of its doings gets out into public. I would be willing to bet if there were a way, not only would the logo be demanded removed but any mention of the business with negative contents. It seems to be the way of all major corps now to try and hide all their doings if it looks the least bit in negative light. The net neutrality issue puts this corp right in the spotlight as it is the main product used to implement twisting the control of the net or it’s attempt.
What some people seem to always have to relearn is that complaining about some imagined slight or demanding that some data be removed is that it makes the geeks come out of the woodwork from now where to carry this material wished to be removed and spread it all over the net. Good example of that was the encoding key used to lock down dvds. Once the demand was met, there was a revolt within the net community and reproductions of the number popped up everywhere, not just at the site it was demanded to be taken down at. Such would have happened here as well with plasters from one end of the net to the other with just the data wished to be controlled and concealed.
Some folks never learn do they?
May 23rd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
The first time I looked at Jon’s parody, I failed to hit on the joke. I don’t know — maybe I’ve been involved in this whole RST-forgery debate for too long already. It took a second look to see what the hubbub was about.
In DPI-land, words like ‘consumer control’ and ‘restrictions’ are product features that are touted proudly — not said in “air quotes” with a wink and a smile. It wouldn’t surprise me if the pinheads in Ontario didn’t get the joke, either.
But this is the Internet, and Sandvine was caught performing a Man-in-the-Middle attack against its users. Users don’t take kindly to stuff like that. Sandvine can continue to try to resurrect a market for something that is clearly a detriment to Internet users, or it can refocus on things it ought to be doing — selling the technology above the table.
I admire what they’ve done here. TCP forgery is so tough, to do it in any substantial way as to redirect traffic (much more involved than their RST injection ever was) in VOLUME deserves some kind of applause. But it doesn’t belong on a free and open Internet. It needs to be on a private network helping companies keep from leaking data, helping multi-national corporations reroute intranets internally to avoid locale-based congestion, figuring out a DPI way to make ad-supported muni-wifi a winner instead of a repeat loser, or making non-internet IP networks pay off (like their Sandvine’s wireless gear seems to offer).
If I were them, I’d change their name. There’s a reason that Zango doesn’t call itself 180Solutions anymore. And the lesson I’d learn from this is “if an ISP wants us to keep their purchase a secret, run away.”
PS: …and don’t get me started about the word “management.”
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Sandvine’s stock chart is encouraging. It can be viewed here:
http://investdb.theglobeandmail.com/invest/investSQL/gx.show_chart?iaction=Generate&pl_period=12D&pl_primary_listing=SVC-T
Although there may be some resistance to falling through the $1.00 level for psychological reasons, the company is well on the way to becoming worthless. Who knows - when they get round to launching the suit against you, you may be able to respond with a takeover bid, funded by your Miley Spears ad revenue.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:02 am
I think i recall Bell being an investor in sandvine…. not sure though, will have to look into this.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:20 am
correction: They (Bell) were listed as a customer.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:32 am
I hope they go completely out of business for what they have done as far as throttling is concerned. But I am getting rid of comcast completely in a few weeks, so I really don’t care.
As far as I know, the NEW ISP I will have does not use stupid sandvine!
May 24th, 2008 at 8:42 am
” As far as I know, the NEW ISP I will have does not use stupid sandvine! ”
As far as you KNOW.
That’s one of many reasons net neutrality must be protected.
May 24th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Sandvine is a crapy company!
Opps infringement!
Sandvine suck!
Opps another infrigement!
Sandvine make your interent conection way slower.
Ohh! No! another infringement!
Sandvine make your servers crawls.
Sandvine is easy to hake!
Infringement! Infringement!
Sandvine is managed by a pack of low life morons!
Another infrigement?
Boycott Sandevine
Man! Infringement!
With Sandvine, for a fortune, you can bring your IP service to a crawl!
Infrigement again!
With Sandvine why make it simple and fast when you can make it slow and complicated!
Final Infrigement for NOW!
Take that Sandvine!
Oops I did it again!
May 24th, 2008 at 10:54 am
There is no future for IP traffic fliter and DRM stuff because the market will not support it.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Sandvine (so sue me, I infringed), meet Streisand Effect.
May 24th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
^^ “The Streisand effect is a phenomen on on the Internet where an attempt to censor or remove a piece of information backfires, causing the information to be widely publicized. Examples are attempts to censor a photograph, a file, or even a whole website, especially by means of cease-and-desist letters. Instead of being suppressed, the information sometimes quickly receives extensive publicity, often being widely mirrored across the Internet …….” — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
Cheers!