Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!rutgers!rochester!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!reed!percival!jamesd
From: jamesd@percival.UUCP (James Deibele)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Phil Katz (PKARC author) sued by SEA (ARC author)
Keywords: katz,sea,pkarc,pkxarc,arc,suit
Message-ID: <1271@percival.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jun 88 04:56:10 GMT
References: <8084@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Reply-To: jamesd@percival.UUCP (James Deibele)
Organization: Percy's UNIX, Portland, OR.
Lines: 46

In article <8084@brl-smoke.ARPA> w8sdz@brl-smoke.UUCP (Keith Petersen) writes:
>This is really incredible!  SEA is suing Phil Katz, the author of
>PK(X)ARC.  I am so angry about this that I am deleting all copies of
>SEA's ARC program.  It's time to send in your support to Phil for his
>vastly superior archiving program.  I am sending my check today - in an
>amount greater than the donation he suggests (his program is free for
>non-commercial use).

I hope SEA wins, solely because of PKARC 3.5.  Phil Katz came out with a 
program that defaults to a non-compatible format which has caused more time
and trouble to be expended than the slight gain in space could ever repay.
You now download files with an .ARC format that ARC can't handle, which is
totally ridiculous.  If he'd used a .PKA extension, or released the source
code, or made the default to be compatible (you have to explicitly instruct
PKARC to make normal ARC files --- that are not only compatible with SEA's
program, but also ones running on CP/M, UNIX, Apple, Macintosh, and other
machines (none of which understand PKARC's "ARC")), he might have reason to
expect sympathy.  
 
Users don't read documentation.  If Katz knew what he was doing when he made
the default non-compatible, he's contemptible.  SEA's ARC now has the 
reputation of being "broken" because it doesn't understand both formats, 
which I'm sure has cut down on their shareware registrations (who registers
broken shareware?) and caused this suit.  So what's SEA supposed to do?  Come
out with NuARC, that writes data into yet another ARC format that PKARC
doesn't understand?  (SEA isn't much, if any, bigger than PKWARE, by the way.)
 
SEA released source, cited people whose code helped ARC, and encouraged 
people to use it on other machines.  ARC swept SQUEEZE and LIBRARY programs
off the face of the MS-DOS earth because people now had one standard, rather
than 15 different versions of SQ or LU.  There are at least two different
trojan versions of ARC on the Dirty Dozen list, and the only time I ever saw
them get any coverage in PC or InfoWorld was when ARC513.COM (a trojan)
formatted some hard disks.  I feel sorry for SEA, 'cause it looks like they
get screwed again.  They did all the dirty work in getting the ARC standard
accepted, and here comes Phil Katz to cherry-pick.  Now all the people that
were using ARC have a "perfect" excuse not to register it.  Maybe nice guys
do finish last ...

 

-- 
James S. Deibele   jamesd@qiclab or jamesd@percival
TECHbooks: The Computer Book Specialists   (800) TECH-BKS
3646 SE Division  Portland, OR  97202      (503) 238-1005
TECHbooks One BBS (#1:105/4.0); 3/12/24    (503) 760-1473