Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!mtunx!whuts!whutt!tes
From: tes@whutt.UUCP (STERKEL)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: WAIT-A-MINIT!! Re: Re: Re: Phil Katz (PKARC author)
Message-ID: <3328@whutt.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jun 88 16:41:42 GMT
References: <782@psu-cs.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 35

> 
>> Anybody got an e-mail address for Thom Henderson, so we can all flame
>> him personally?

I was here two years ago when the consensus was that Phil Katz
*ripped-off* SEA's intellectual achievement.  (I was also the
first one to post PK* vs SEA performance tests.)  After com-
municating with Mr. Katz on a compatibility problem between
PK* and Fansi-console, I dropped use of his software for the
following reasons:

  1.  No monetary recognition of SEA's intellectual property.
  2.  Phil Katz's arbitrary revision of the SEA standard creating
      *.arc files incompatible with other *arc programs. (yes,
      I know about the patches/command files, *but* the default
      is incompatible.
  3.  Incompatible with Fansi-console during operations with
      contaminated files (reported to the net and Mr. Katz).

However, this is (very) old news.  Could someone please inform me
when Mr. Katz became the hero/victum?  No matter what the apparent
benefits, it remains against my sense of professional ethics to
benefit from other's intellectual achievement without giving them
full credit.  There is NO concept or application on an idea that
cannot be improved on.  If we do not protect the ORIGINATOR we
get what we deserve...no innovation...just rehashed old ideas.

(An example is the fact that 1-2-3 and its 100's of clones are
little more than implementation enhancements of Visicalc(r). 
Maybe no one wants to be the next Visicalc and that is why we
have seen so little innovation in the PC world, just rip-offs
of previous ideas)

Just a thought for the flamers to stoke up on,
terry