Source: CCTV.com

06-25-2007 17:29

IT software developer, Symantec, has agreed to compensate clients in China after an anti-virus software program, that was made by the company' disabled tens of thousands of computers. But the dispute has yet to be settled. Users are outraged by what they think is a very paltry compensation indeed.

Symantec has offered affected users a free one-year subscription to antivirus protection from Norton AntiVirus - the same program that removed critical system files and left tens of thousands of PCs unable to boot up in May. But judging from online forums in China, the response has been one of angry disbelief. Thousands say they are frustrated at the data they've lost and are harshly critical of what they feel is both a delayed and insincere response from Symantec.

Alamus, deputy director of China E-commerce Assoc. said:" As a company with an international name, Symantec's response to its Chinese consumers lacks seriousness and sincerity."

The dispute began on the morning of May 18th. A routine update of Norton AntiVirus identified two critical Windows files as viruses, and deleted or moved them. This led to multiple PCs crashing and unable to restart... with screens frozen with a "blue screen of death" error message . Some companies were badly hit, when hundreds of their PCs were unable to function. Symantec has come under fire for being slow to react, and even slower to offer compensation. Some claim the delay was an attempt to shift the blame to Microsoft.

Alamus said:" It's obvious that Symantec is trying to avoid mentioning compensation. They are watching the reaction from users. They are attempting to get away from their responsibility."

A week after the incident, Symantec began offering a free bootable CD that could restore PCs by replacing the missing files. But by then several lawsuits had already been filed, with plaintiffs seeking compensation as much as several thousand US dollars.

 

Editor:Li Yang