Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!mcnc!decvax!harpo!ihnp4!zehntel!tektronix!hplabs!sri-unix!papa%USC-CSE@USC-ECL.ARPA From: papa%USC-CSE@USC-ECL.ARPA Newsgroups: net.micro.pc Subject: Great Kermit Hoax Message-ID: <12349@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Mon, 16-Apr-84 18:39:33 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12349 Posted: Mon Apr 16 18:39:33 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 23-Apr-84 01:11:13 EST Lines: 19 From: Marco Papa This is an excerpt from an article by Michael N. Huttner in the latest issue of PC WEEK, entitled "Barnum Would Enjoy Hucksterism in Ads; Buyers Beware": "... More than likely, it was one of Barnum's cunning descendants who engineered the legendary "Great Kermit Hoax," by successfully contriving to fleece Uncle Sam himself for a hefty sum before fading safely away into the sunset. According to our version of the story, our bright friend recently contracted with an agency of the federal government to develop a personal computer-to-mainframe communications software package. It seems the fellow simply borrowed a working copy of a program called KERMIT from a library collection of free, public-domain personal computer software. After making some very cosmetic modifications, he then neatly proceeded to duplicate and deliver the package as promised--and collected $ 495 per copy. A very smooth job indeed...."