EVGA_JacobF
Here is the official EVGA statement:
 

First, we value the relationship that we have with RivaTuner Alex/Unwinder since Feb.13th, 2008. With EVGA and Alex/Unwinder mutual efforts, Precision has become a very popular overclocking utility since it launched. Afterburner’s first release was in Oct. 2009.

It was originally EVGA’s idea to provide the world’s first “simple” overclocking GUI designed for NVIDIA cards that utilizes some of the Rivatuner technology for free. Due to some misinformation floating around about EVGA Precision recently, we would like to clarify several points. Also, EVGA wouldn’t have any interest to develop our own version if Alex/Unwinder had showed his interest back then like we’ve seen today!

1. The EVGA Precision main GUI (main Window) and format was fully designed and owned by EVGA, that means Alex/Unwinder did not design the Precision GUI at all. The Rivatuner technology was used for the backend like GPU reporting, OSD and overclocking. Other features like voltage tuning, pixel clock control and Bluetooth function were coded by EVGA. We want it to be clear that Rivatuner source code has never been released to EVGA. A year and half after Precision was introduced, Afterburner was released, that shared a lot of the same ideas and concepts originally set by EVGA’s Precision, and also used Rivatuner technology.
2. Most gamers knew that some of the key features that have been requested and missed such as 64bit OSD, voltage control and video recording in the early versions of Precision, yet Afterburner had it. You probably don’t know that some of those ideas were initiated and requested to Alex/Unwinder by EVGA to implement into Precision well before it was available in Afterburner, but Alex/Unwinder had no intention to add it. One year later they showed up in Afterburner exclusively without any notification and/or offer to EVGA. We felt that we became Alex/Unwinder and Afterburner’s free consultant if we continue this route.

We like Precision, the interface and the features, just like most of the gamers in the community, but under these circumstances, it became clear that in order to provide more features that are requested by the community, we needed to recode the back end from the ground up, using our own existing Precision skin designed as merely inspiration, that is why today we have the new EVGA PrecisionX 15. In the latest PrecisionX 15 we have put in some features like 64bit OSD support, Steam achievements and more. We want to make it clear that EVGA PrecisionX 15 is 100% coded in house without using any code from the older Precision due to we don’t have the source code since day one!

EVGA will continue adding features to support the community on PrecisionX15 for free as usual, and hope to inspire other overclocking utilities to be better for the entire gaming community.

The bottom line is that EVGA doesn’t want any third party to dictate what features the community should or should not have!

EVGA

This is perfect, straight forward and to the point. Thank You EVGA!

I'm really disappointed in the lack of integrity with Evga on this one. This will affect my purchasing habits in the future. 

HeavyHemi

kaninja
So what is Rivatuner's Llicense agreement EULA doing in PrecisionX 15?  Perhaps shedding some light on that will be the final "Ah ha" moment in clarifying all this.
 

EVGA_JacobF
The bottom line is that EVGA doesn’t want any third party to dictate what features the community should or should not have!

EVGA

 
I must say, this sounds like "Dare keep any of your stuff from us and we will kick you out and clone your work anyway......Rrrrrrrrrr".
 
 

Or this might be as simple as MSI paid better.

That is fine.  It still gives nobody the right to copy and paste his work......IF that indeed is what happened.  Unwinder has looked at the new Precision and has seen some stuff that is directly from his own work.......either he is lying, which I doubt because the coding community will all be looking at this, and if there are parts of it that were copied then it will come to light.....if not, then EVGA will be shown to be wrongfully accused in all this.  However, from what I've known about Unwinder over the years, he may be many things.....a liar isn't one of them.

kram36
This is perfect, straight forward and to the point. Thank You EVGA!

Actually, it's far from perfect.
 
Jacob doublespeaks, frequently...That "official statement" is them talking in circles which, never ceases to end.
 
After the X79 Classified debacle, AFAIC, they can pound sand but, I've been a part of the Guru community long before the EVGA community and I've gotta say, being in this industry for over a decade, I completely side with Unwinder...Even though he is a pompous - well - mouthy individual, GURU is a bit beyond reproach.
 
After the whole X79 Classified situation -- This doesn't surprise me in the least.

kaninja

HeavyHemi

kaninja
So what is Rivatuner's Llicense agreement EULA doing in PrecisionX 15?  Perhaps shedding some light on that will be the final "Ah ha" moment in clarifying all this.
 

EVGA_JacobF
The bottom line is that EVGA doesn’t want any third party to dictate what features the community should or should not have!

EVGA

 
I must say, this sounds like "Dare keep any of your stuff from us and we will kick you out and clone your work anyway......Rrrrrrrrrr".
 
 

Or this might be as simple as MSI paid better.

That is fine.  It still gives nobody the right to copy and paste his work......IF that indeed is what happened.  Unwinder has looked at the new Precision and has seen some stuff that is directly from his own work.......either he is lying, which I doubt because the coding community will all be looking at this, and if there are parts of it that were copied then it will come to light.....if not, then EVGA will be shown to be wrongfully accused in all this.  However, from what I've known about Unwinder over the years, he may be many things.....a liar isn't one of them.

The 'coding community' can't really help because only EVGA and Unwinder has access to their own original code and the coding community couldn't possibly know whose work is whose. All the coding community could point out is what matches but cannot say why the work matches or who originally created that work.

It's only word against word. I don't really care. Let it blow over.

Just because the resource ids match doesn't prove anything. If EVGA already had designed their nice UI, and they already have their nice UI expecting certain resource ids, of course they are going to reprogram the source code to use the same resource ids rather than renaming everything. It is just a label and is not copyrighted. It proves nothing to use the same ids.

Anyone can open the two up in reshacker and check for resource matches. But it proves nothing unless Unwinder can also prove that he exclusively owns the UI. If EVGA owns the ui, then it only makes sense that they would want to use the same resource ids in the backend source code only EVGA can see.

EVGA can only see EVGA's source code and Unwinder can only see Unwider's source code. Much a deal about nothing. Someone give this man a BR.

Yes I agree, give that man a BR....only one that has made sense in a few posts. :)

The new prec x causes all kinds of issues anyway. I'll go back to what works.... Good luck EVGA...

The way I see this... This is a perfect example of how NOT to use the internet. Folks are far to comfortable in getting on a soap box, while having a particular type of audience in their minds, not recognizing that all audience types are present. 
 
"One should not air dirty laundry on the internet" as it lives for ever. And now a few folks are never going to recover from the mess they made.
 
It is one thing to have a disagreement and research possible violations. It is quite another doing it in open waters (Internet) as it is far more dangerous once the anger has drifted away and the truth or truths reveal themselves. Then one of two choices has to be made. 1 Denial and making yourself look like a troll and forever be the butt of jokes. 2 Admit the error and face the consequences. And probably still be the butt of jokes, but not for as long as #1...

If EVGA wants to save face, they need to not release it, or pull it if it has been, and change it all.

Afterburner
The way I see this... This is a perfect example of how NOT to use the internet. Folks are far to comfortable in getting on a soap box, while having a particular type of audience in their minds, not recognizing that all audience types are present. 
 
"One should not air dirty laundry on the internet" as it lives for ever. And now a few folks are never going to recover from the mess they made.
 
It is one thing to have a disagreement and research possible violations. It is quite another doing it in open waters (Internet) as it is far more dangerous once the anger has drifted away and the truth or truths reveal themselves. Then one of two choices has to be made. 1 Denial and making yourself look like a troll and forever be the butt of jokes. 2 Admit the error and face the consequences. And probably still be the butt of jokes, but not for as long as #1...

This is actually my 2nd post in over a year...Which is quite sad because I used to love this community but, the way we were treated during the X79 situation was, unacceptable. Lied to on the phone BY EVGA, sent in repeated RMA's sometimes even getting an old "refurbished" motherboards back that other users had documented as not working...It was genuinely, beyond my scope of forgiveness...In fact, my last discussion was with you, sir...And I have a great amount of respect for you (Even before you became a mod and after) but, I feel it was time to air this.
 
I've been a part of the Guru3d site for many, many years, long before I joined here. We used to have to host the Alienware mobile drivers there because our servers were often so overloaded it caused issues.
 
I find Unwinder to be mouthy...Some choice words I can't use here...But, he's brilliant. What he brings to the community is 2nd to none.
 
AFAIK this issue has been brewing for a very long time and has been ignored by EVGA for a long time. It's because of that "ignorance" and lack of "acknowledgement" that this entire situation was brought to the table.
 
I wouldn't say this is dirty laundry...Not after the past few years and the direction EVGA is heading...EVGA wants to sit on their pedestal of glory and show the peons how far they've come when in reality, they've regressed...Substantially.
 
Unwinder has proof, substantial proof, that EVGA basically copy/pasted the entire 4 corners of the application in discussion -- The only REAL QUESTION is, did they have permission or not? According to Unwinder, they didn't. According to EVGA's talking in circles and Jacob's endless ability to double talk it's: We don't know but, we did it anyway...Now we're investigating to see how bad the situation really is.
 
Honestly, even without the X79 situation, I'd side with Unwinder -- The EULA is copy/pasted...Literally...If you're too lazy to even write your own EULA, I call out the rest.

Have to say that this whole situation really disappoints me. I liked that you guys supported Unwinder, Rivatuna is amazing software.
 
To simply clone the software right down to the same rasterized graphics, menu layouts/texts, graph layouts and heck even the End User License Agreement is copy and pasted. That's Unwinders license with references to him and you've used it in your own installer.. that's just bizarre and show that your intentions were to create a 1:1 copy without authorisation.
 
I can understand your frustration where MSI had exclusive features in After Burner that you did not including the 64-bit OSD. But that doesn't mean you can just plagiarize the whole software. You should pay a license fee to get that and other features, that is how business works. If Ford created the same car as GM in physical appearance even without using any of the same design materials you think Ford would just sit by? No, they would sue immediately!
 
Whilst you may not have technically broken any laws (although I think that is still left to be determined) this is morally wrong. The last thing I want to say is that in my mind your brand just dropped a few notches and I now see EVGA in the same realm as a cheap knock off artist, this will be reflected in my future buying decisions, I don't want to support this kind of moral ambiguity with my money.

Brad_Hawthorne
I think people are missing the point a bit. It's not about copyright infringement of codebase, it's an issue of intellectual property when one uses a duplicate of a software interface. Frankly, it seems to me like a falling out occurred somewhere along the line and this is just the aftermath. The way this has been handled on both sides is a bit ridiculous though. It makes both sides look bad.

I think what occurred is MSI got their contracts in first for 64-bit OSD and other features. EVGA had to wait and this is the result.
 
The thing is, none of us would have had a problem with EVGA developing their own Precision X had it not been an unashamed clone of Unwinders. It's not fair, it's not right.

Brad_Hawthorne
I think people are missing the point a bit. It's not about copyright infringement of codebase, it's an issue of intellectual property when one uses a duplicate of a software interface. Frankly, it seems to me like a falling out occurred somewhere along the line and this is just the aftermath. The way this has been handled on both sides is a bit ridiculous though. It makes both sides look bad. One would guess that there are multiple NDA breaches in all of this with how this was aired out.
 
The real issue is who owns the intellectual property rights to the interface design? Who breached NDA talking about what in this dialogue? Was there a no derivative works clause in the EULA at anytime? Who owns the EULA that was copied? ETC... None of that is really any of the public's business though. You don't resolve business issues by airing dirty laundry in a public venue like children.

The article actually breaks it down to the point of where you can actually see, it was a direct copy. They essentially, when they didn't get equal "upgrades" branched off, took the entire program and just built onto it. -- There's really no question/argument if it was copied or not, it was. -- EVGA's claim to have "built this from scratch" holds as much water as my colander does.
 
You are correct, though -- The only question at this point is: Who owns the rights?
 
To that, considering Unwinder is making a stink about it and the supporting facts that GURU dug up, I'd say Unwinder does.
 
Don't worry though, Jacob will be here momentarily to continue endlessly talking in circles.

MADOGRE
Losing more costumers by the minuet, EVGA knows what they did is wrong!

You can almost hear the tiny violins. I think this release needs to go Bach to the drawing board.

candle_86
nah good folks will continue to support EVGA and continue to buy Quality American products.

lol, what American products....most of what they sell is made in Asia.