Xref: utzoo misc.legal:10924 comp.misc:6964 comp.sys.ibm.pc:34971 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sdrc!scjones From: scjones@sdrc.UUCP (Larry Jones) Newsgroups: misc.legal,comp.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Legal status of ARC Message-ID: <816@sdrc.UUCP> Date: 19 Sep 89 22:29:47 GMT References: <22255@cup.portal.com> Distribution: usa Organization: Structural Dynamics Research Corp., Cincinnati Lines: 39 In article <22255@cup.portal.com>, Matthew_Eric_Seitz@cup.portal.com writes: > > I seem to remember reading an article a couple of months back by > John Dvorak stating that Software Enhancements Associates (SEA) had won its > lawsuit against Phil Katz's PKWARE Corp. for violating its copyright on > ARC by publishing PKARC. As I understood it, the judge ruled that it was > illegal for a company to produce a program which produced files using the ARC > compression algorithm or that had a .ARC extension. Nothing was mentioned > about the legality of programs that uncompress SEA ARC files. > > Could anyone provide me with further details of the case and the > final ruling? What are the implications for other "clone" programs that > create data files compatible with other programs? There was no final ruling, SEA and PKWARE agreed to a settlement (the net result of which was that SEA got everything they wanted and PKWARE got nothing). SEA does claim exclusive rights to both the ARC file format and extension, but they issued a blanket license to anyone except Phil Katz and PKWARE to use them at no charge. As I understand it, the reason that PKWARE gave in is that SEA subpoenaed the PKARC source code and careful examination of the parts that had not been rewritten in assember showed them to be identical to ARC, including the SEA copyright statements! Thus, I would not interpret the settlement to be any sort of blanket endorsement of SEA's claims. I would say that the only implications for other clone programs is to make sure they really are clones and not just copies, and be prepared for a lawsuit. DISCLAIMER: I'm not a lawyer. I think trying to claim exclusive rights to file formats and extensions is just plain silly. ---- Larry Jones UUCP: uunet!sdrc!scjones SDRC scjones@SDRC.UU.NET 2000 Eastman Dr. BIX: ltl Milford, OH 45150-2789 AT&T: (513) 576-2070 "I have plenty of good sense. I just choose to ignore it." -Calvin