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From: kirsch@USASOC.SOC.MIL (David Kirschbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: XDOS320.ZIP - ExtraDOS: Adds the commands that DOS left out
Summary: Reposted by Keith Petersen
Message-ID: <9106041459.AA01122@sarofs>
Date: 4 Jun 91 14:59:46 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 93

A *huge* package called XDOS320.ZIP was recently uploaded to the SIMTEL20
<MSDOS.SYSUTL> directory.  It's a collection of DOS utilities.

Extracted from EXTRADOS.TXT:

  ExtraDOS is a compilation of tools useful to Microsoft DOS users.
  I originally wrote these tools under MS-DOS because I found a need
  for them and there were no commercially available products which
  provided these functions.  Some ExtraDOS tools were designed to
  enhance programs already found in MS-DOS.  Other tools were
  familiar to the Unix world, but were not available in MS-DOS.  In
  addition, ExtraDOS compliments PC-Tools and Norton Utilities with
  added tools these programs do not provide.

  The ExtraDOS utilities are Copyright (c) 1985-91 by Foley Hi-Tech
  Systems. These programs are not public domain, but are "shareware."


Ok, so far so good.  Until I started looking at some of these
programs.  Then something smelled fishy.  I've worked with public
domain utilities for a *long* time, tweaked a fair share of them
myself, and (again and again) these Foley utilities seemed familiar:

    ALARMCLK     - Alarm Clock Program
                 - SETALARM
    ALLSUB       - Perform Task In All Subdirectories
    AREA         - Telephone Area Code Search Utility
    BANNER       - DOS Banner Display
    BOOT         - PC Rebooting Utility
    BOOTLOCK     - Lock Out Reboot Keys and Break Keys
    BOOTPAST     - Boot Past a Floppy to the Hard Disk
    BRKBOX       - COM Port Break Out Box Display
    CAL          - DOS Calendar Display
    CAT          - DOS Cat Text File Utility
    CHIMES       - DOS Clock Chimes
    CLEAN        - Floppy Drive Cleaning Program
    CLEANUP      - Cleanup Your Drives from Duplicate Files
    CURLOCK      - Lock Cursor Shape Permanently
    CURSOR       - Change Cursor Shapes

Need I go on?  EVERY SINGLE ONE of these *strongly* resembles a similar
public domain utility.  On closer examination, BRKBOX is IDENTICAL in
appearance and function to an old BREAKBOX utility I've used for years.
Except it how has a "Foley Hi-Tech' copyright!  CURSOR is ABSOLUTELY
identical (and even has the original SSI copyright on the screen!).  Yet
now it has a Foley Hi-Tech copyright!  CHIMES is ABSOLUTELY identical to
NJCHIME.ARC (right on SIMTEL20) (right down to the choice of chimes), but
now it has a Foley Hi-Tech copyright!

    EVAL         - DOS Command Line Calculator
    FILEATTR     - Change File Attributes
    FILEINFO     - File Information Program
    FILESIZE     - File Size Listing Utility

It goes on and on.  Sorry but I do suspect Foley of stealing every
public domain utility he could find and stuffing his copyright into
the source.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe he *did* write an original
utility, or make significant changes and improvements to entitle him
to a copyright.  But for the most parts this smacks strongly of
piracy.  How can you pirate from the public domain?  Well, legally
there's no such offense.  But morally there is.

And in the documentation he includes a list of "projects" Foley Hi-Tech
is currently working on.  Heck, it reads like an extract of SIMTEL20's
PD:<MSDOS.SYSUTL> catalog!

I've had a gutfull of commercial enterprises ripping off the public
domain.  Using our stuff I don't mind, but trying to OWN it?  No way.
I'm ready to fight.

And there's another wee problem:  Foley compressed most of the .EXE
programs with PKLITE.  This did nothing to reduce the size of his 600+Kb
.ZIP archive, of course .. matter of fact, the PKLITE'd files made the
.ZIP bigger!  But that's not the problem:  it was just a royal pain to
PKLITE -x all those files to do a virus check!  And some files could NOT
be restored to their uncompressed state:

  EVAL.EXE      :wrong version (compressed with PKLITE 1.0)
  LS.EXE        :some unknown proprietary Foley Hi-Tech compressor
  MAZE.EXE      :ditto
  TEXTSRCH.EXE  :ditto
  TURBOBAT.COM  :Has internal PKWARE copyright, but PKLITE 1.2 fails

So I can't check ANY of these for viri!

Perhaps an Info-IBMPC or Usenet reader can check with the Foley BBS and
get an explanation.

You do what you want about this archive.  Me:  I'm trashing this sucker.

David Kirschbaum
Toad Hall
kirsch@usasoc.soc.mil