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AVID disclaimer from annual report
Let me preface this by saying that I’m not posting this to raise a ruckus. We have, within the past two years, bought into AVID technology in a very big way. While some of the the equipment (Newscutters, ISIS network, Airspeed) has worked as promised, in general we have been plagued with problems that we never had with our old Discreet Logic systems, which were pretty much bullet proof. Huge amounts of training are required for systems that should require little more than a perusal of a manual.
Here’s what I’m referring to:
“We offer sophisticated and complex products. Our software products, as is
typical of high-end software, generally include coding defects or errors, often
referred to as “bugs,” which in some cases may interfere with or impair a
customer’s ability to operate or use the software. Similarly, our hardware
products, from time to time, may include design or manufacturing defects that
could cause them to malfunction. Although we employ various quality control
measures, they may be inadequate, particularly if other business considerations,
such as meeting target release-to-market dates, limit the amount of time or
resources available to devote to such measures. We cannot be certain that we
will be able to detect or remedy all such defects that may exist in our
products. Any such defects could result in loss of customers or revenues, delays
in revenue recognition, increased product returns, damage to our market
reputation and significant warranty or other expense.”This is cut and pasted from:
https://sec.edgar-online.com/2007/03/01/0000896841-07-000016/Section3.asp
I am shocked and dismayed that a company of AVID’s status would basically state that they are not responsible for anything they program, make, or manufacture. Wow!
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
14 Replies
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Just about every piece of software you buy (license) has the same kind of legal boilerplate in those long agreements you have to agree to before the software will install. That’s why Microsoft Windows documentation says it isn’t for use on any system where a malfunction can cause injury or death. Imagine if your car ran on Windows Vista. When you step on the brake, instead of stopping you get a message that says “Brake Failure: Abort/Retry/Fail”
All you can do is try to get the best software and hardware for the work you need to do.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
this just translates to
“we use to take great strides to ensure our products were ready for release when released. We now have found great margins in allowing our clientele pay to test our products for us rather than our paying to test before release. While this is driving our company into the ground, our executive types have been really getting their golf handicaps down and thats what is important to us at this time.”
God help me if ever forced to purchase another Avid product.
I’d venture to say if I don’t have to do that in the next two years, I won’t have to worry about it. I wish em well in their retirement.
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I notice that Autodesk has no such Weasleology in their annual report.
Joe Bourke
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they are on the other end of marketing. They are actually trying to make their products better as they go. Apple and Adobe seem to adhere to this as well.
I still think the ex-execs at Avid hve a boatload of stock in these companies. They sure moved more prouct from these companies than any staffed sales team could. -
This really is not news. Agreeing with what has been said earlier, every company disclaims that there could indeed be coding errors, hence patches and new builds. Before you go on an NLE witchhunt, consider that every time Apple release a patch for FCP, that is admission of the same guilt (and I only use Apple as an example, because I won’t be drawn into an Avid vs FCP war).
Have you ever editing a program that was rejected by network because of a color spec being illegal? The answer is probably yes, and yes that means you and I are just as subject to the same fallibility. It happens.
Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks
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Having worked for a number of years in product development for a major technology company, every bit of this is true for any product. No product would ever be released if there was a requirement to have all the bugs fixed prior to release.
Product development usually will classify bugs in degrees of severity, starting with bugs that are major (can cause severe loss of data, loss of life, etc…) that will prevent a product from being released, down to cosmetic bugs that don’t affect anything and most likely will never get fixed. In between are all the bugs that happen infrequently, don’t cause any major damage, etc… Those bugs are fixed if it won’t incur an extra cost or cause delays in the ship date. Once the product ships, the development cycle starts again as they now have time to fix bugs from the first release and introduce new features (and new bugs). Products developed for “mission critical” areas like the medical fields have longer (and more expensive) development cycles…beats having an expensive lawsuit.
The odd thing about this is that often people would rather have a buggy product NOW than than wait past the original ship date for a more stable product. Case in point, look at the iPhone early adopters and the RED One camera. The latter being even more ridiculous since people voluntarily took ownership of a product that they were told had bugs, missing features, etc… just to be the first on the block with it.It is interesting that Avid states it so boldly while everyone else ignores it or just believes that it is understood. Perhaps they are trying to avoid or limit their liability.
Erik
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[Evil Ash Editor] “Have you ever editing a program that was rejected by network because of a color spec being illegal? The answer is probably yes, and yes that means you and I are just as subject to the same fallibility. It happens.”
A. No. I have never had a tape rejected by a network for bad specs.
B. They prolly otta have a bigger quality control dept than one man band post houses. I’d hate to think one company sluffin’ off warrants others to do the same in hopes of not making them look bad. -
Grinner wrote: They are actually trying to make their products better as they go. Apple and Adobe seem to adhere to this as well.
Uh-oh! Apple’s got the same verbiage in their annual report.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/000110465905058421/a05-20674_110k.htm
Better quit buying Apple stuff. 🙂
good luck,
Carl -
I’ve not heard the laundry list from final cut pro users of things advertised that are not the case. I’ve built my own with Adrenaline. First hand experience is all I can really trust.
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[grinner] “I’ve not heard the laundry list from final cut pro users of things advertised that are not the case. I’ve built my own with Adrenaline. First hand experience is all I can really trust.”
Pop over to the FCP forum and look around. There are plenty of issues with FCP.
I don’t even cut on Avid anymore–using FCP 4.5. Trust me, I would much, much, much rather be working on an Avid. All around it feels like a much more solid editor and the media management alone is worth the extra cost. I know the media management hasn’t been fixed in Final Cut Studio 2, but maybe the editor has gotten better. Can’t say, I’m using an old version, but compared to Avid it still feels like a toy to me. Maybe as I get more into it I’ll change my mind, but right now it’s not for me. Not my choice though.
Regarding the disclaimer in Avid’s annual report–ever notice that every single car ad tells you it’s a professional driving on a closed course and not to try this at home? Yeah, no kidding! Of course it’s a professional driver and they shut off the highway so they could take turns at 80 miles an hour. It’s expected, but in a country as sue-friendly as ours it’s required to disclaim every stupid little thing. The day someone releases a piece of software with absolutely no bugs and never introduces any as they upgrade will be the day pigs fly and hell freezes over. In the meantime, disclaim everything and cover your butt.
Michael.
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