LA_MERC_M@lACHi
October 7th, 2004, 09:18 AM
Check this out. Can you believe this guy @ Futuremark?
3DMark Makers Upset with [H]:
Tero Sarkkinen, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Futuremark, wrote in this morning with a directive for HardOCP to stop slandering their 3Dmark product line and threatens to bring in lawyers. I do have to think that this is a shot across our bow as surely ATI and NVIDIA have told Futuremark about recent interviews we have done with the video giants in preparation for an upcoming HardOCP editorial.
I strongly advise you to not to slander our product, 3DMark, on your web site. Take down all your false and unjustified and baseless claims about 3DMark.
Sincerely,
Tero Sarkkinen
Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Futuremark Corporation
[email protected], http://www.futuremark.com
As is normal operating procedure, we like to be specific as to what exactly the company wants removed. So I responded, " I have reviewed the document that you sent (Tero sent a 15 page PDF that was a reproduction of today's HardOCP news page in full (possibly a copyright violation in itself )) and see no slanderous, false, unjustified, or baseless claims whatsoever about "3DMark." Could you please be more specific as to your allegations and advice?
Tero replied with...
You know what I mean. Your articles have consistently discredited 3DMark for years now and the few justifications there have sometimes been have been without merit. It seems to us as if you have something against our product personally and are using your popular website as a platform to attack and trying to discredit on purpose and with baseless claims and sometimes also with erroneous information.
I will no longer communicate with you after this. Our attorney is looking that this situation will get resolved and will contact you if necessary.
Tero Sarkkinen
Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Futuremark Corporation
[email protected], http://www.futuremark.com
"You know what I mean," was hardly the answer I expected. But just remember that having an opinion these days means having a band of high priced lawyers at your side.
I do stand by the opinion that 3DMark05 "sucks" as a benchmark based on the fact that it does not tell me anything specifically about the games I play. Did 3DMark tell us how DOOM3 was going to play? No. Will 3DMark tell us how HL2 or STALKER will play on a given system? No. Does that mean 3DMark is worthless? Surely not. 3DMark has a ton of great and fun uses; I just don't find any of them as a benefit to our readers or myself directly. On that note, the entire 3DMark series can be a great tool for end users testing tweaks and such on their systems and it can be a great source of fun competition across the Net.
Our editorial on the state of 3DMark will be published soon, and I guess this one will be another that we have to pay the lawyers to read before it goes out the door. But if Futuremark thinks their baseless threats and attacks on our opinions will gain them ground with the hardware community, or us they are badly mistaken.
And Tero, I know you guys are not Americans, so you might want to catch up with The United States Constitution and specifically the First Amendment to it. I guarantee you that HardOCP is very much inside its legal rights to express opinions about your products and will continue to do so. What amazes me is that you are stepping on some of the very toes that Futuremark relies on to make its money, and those toes belong to the gaming and hardware communities that we share the truth with on a daily basis. Now take our advice. You are barking up the wrong tree little doggy.
3DMark Makers Upset with [H]:
Tero Sarkkinen, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Futuremark, wrote in this morning with a directive for HardOCP to stop slandering their 3Dmark product line and threatens to bring in lawyers. I do have to think that this is a shot across our bow as surely ATI and NVIDIA have told Futuremark about recent interviews we have done with the video giants in preparation for an upcoming HardOCP editorial.
I strongly advise you to not to slander our product, 3DMark, on your web site. Take down all your false and unjustified and baseless claims about 3DMark.
Sincerely,
Tero Sarkkinen
Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Futuremark Corporation
[email protected], http://www.futuremark.com
As is normal operating procedure, we like to be specific as to what exactly the company wants removed. So I responded, " I have reviewed the document that you sent (Tero sent a 15 page PDF that was a reproduction of today's HardOCP news page in full (possibly a copyright violation in itself )) and see no slanderous, false, unjustified, or baseless claims whatsoever about "3DMark." Could you please be more specific as to your allegations and advice?
Tero replied with...
You know what I mean. Your articles have consistently discredited 3DMark for years now and the few justifications there have sometimes been have been without merit. It seems to us as if you have something against our product personally and are using your popular website as a platform to attack and trying to discredit on purpose and with baseless claims and sometimes also with erroneous information.
I will no longer communicate with you after this. Our attorney is looking that this situation will get resolved and will contact you if necessary.
Tero Sarkkinen
Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Futuremark Corporation
[email protected], http://www.futuremark.com
"You know what I mean," was hardly the answer I expected. But just remember that having an opinion these days means having a band of high priced lawyers at your side.
I do stand by the opinion that 3DMark05 "sucks" as a benchmark based on the fact that it does not tell me anything specifically about the games I play. Did 3DMark tell us how DOOM3 was going to play? No. Will 3DMark tell us how HL2 or STALKER will play on a given system? No. Does that mean 3DMark is worthless? Surely not. 3DMark has a ton of great and fun uses; I just don't find any of them as a benefit to our readers or myself directly. On that note, the entire 3DMark series can be a great tool for end users testing tweaks and such on their systems and it can be a great source of fun competition across the Net.
Our editorial on the state of 3DMark will be published soon, and I guess this one will be another that we have to pay the lawyers to read before it goes out the door. But if Futuremark thinks their baseless threats and attacks on our opinions will gain them ground with the hardware community, or us they are badly mistaken.
And Tero, I know you guys are not Americans, so you might want to catch up with The United States Constitution and specifically the First Amendment to it. I guarantee you that HardOCP is very much inside its legal rights to express opinions about your products and will continue to do so. What amazes me is that you are stepping on some of the very toes that Futuremark relies on to make its money, and those toes belong to the gaming and hardware communities that we share the truth with on a daily basis. Now take our advice. You are barking up the wrong tree little doggy.