Wednesday, March 9. 2005

Autodesk Bails on Embargo After Leaks

Autodesk opened the door of its AutoCAD 2006 embargo a bit this week. Apparently 12 УspecialФ Autodesk employees and outside-the-company bloggers were given permission to spill the beans on AutoCAD 2006. This morning I learned the whole embargo was dropped. When I and some 50 other journalists attended press day at Autodesk University last year we signed non-disclosure agreements and promised not to write about the release until March 15 of this year. My write-up is stored in a folder called УNDA_3_15.Ф ItТs also holding material on the new versions of AutoCAD Map 2006 and Civil 3D 2006 which I also agreed not to share until 3/15. I guess some pigs are more equal than other pigs.

Update 3/11/05: The original blog posts I read have been removed. Other coverage of the situation, by Randall Newton, is here.

Update 3/15/05: Rollout continues as planned Autodesk sends appology to the press, which is reprinted here (click on Letters and read the second one).

ItТs worth noting that in the five years IТve been writing about this industry I believe IТve signed more NDAs with AutodeskТs name on them and heard the word embargo more from this company than all other companies combined. People tell me it has to do with Autodesk being a public company and the stock price, and analysts, etc. So, thatТd leave one to believe they only let Уfriends of AutodeskФ speak out early. I note the one person whose opinion I wanted first, Ralph Grabowski was not on that list. He in fact, broke the story on his blog!

The whole embargo thing is pretty interesting. ItТs often a request from the person putting out the news, rarely is it a contract that we as journalists sign. GITA provided a few embargoed releases so the name of its award winners did not slip out early. I suppose thereТs not a big jump in anyone in GISТ stock price based on those awards, but simply the organization wanted to make it a Уsurprise.Ф A recent column by Adam Penenberg (HeТs the guy who found out that Stephen Glass was making stuff up, among other things) suggested we journalists simply ignore embargoes. He argues that the goal of the embargo was to insure journalists take their time and write accurate stories. In fact, though, the embargo has other implications. УIn effect, reporters become accomplices in a highly coordinated marketing campaign. But journalists get something out of the arrangement, too. It levels the playing field, otherwise, the thinking goes, The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times would have every scoop handed to them.Ф Penenberg goes to note that Wired News (where he wrote the piece) ignores some embargoes, as does CNET, but The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Associated Press respect them. WhatТs a journalist to do?

Apparently, when things go awry like this, we bloggers and journalists complain. I wrote to Autodesk Monday night to ask УwhatТs going on?Ф This morning I received my TenLinks Daily (which comes early this week due to a CAD conference in Chicago, thanks for gettign up early TenLinks folks!) which noted GrabowskiТs latest post, announcing the embargo was lifted.

Once I have the details from Autodesk I promise to spill any and all beans I can on AutoCAD 2006, and more importantly for our community, Map 2006.

Update: Autodesk has lifted the embargo on the entire Autodesk 2006 family. Read my take on Civil 3D 2006 and Autodesk Map 3D 2006 here.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg at 07:10 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

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