Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!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: <3329@whutt.UUCP> Date: 20 Jun 88 12:03:56 GMT References: Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 30 [Mr. Petersen sent me his reply via email, but used that still-glitchy "domain" addressing and my reply got bounced. Then I noticed that his reply was cross-posted to this newsgroup, solving my problem of how to respond......] However, SEA was the *originator* of the "format" of such compression when applied to the PC world. Phil Katz remains a me-to developer. I stand firm on the ethics and necessity of protecting the originator...who wants to become the next Visicalc? P.S. configure files are a pain to maintain, I contend that the default is *for* incompatibility. If Mr. Katz *really* cared about compatibility, he would default to the SEA-standard without a "configure" file. P.S.S. I may have been wrong in assuming that SEA's acknowledgement of the originators of the technique indicated proper approval from the commercial rights holder. Humm, I wonder about UNIX(r) compress. In any case, I fail to see how a potential (unproven) ethics failure by SEA in any way allows a third party to do the same to SEA. (There is a Latin term rattling around in the empty spaces of my cranium that defines this type of logic error...oh well) P.S.S.S. At the risk of heaping fuel to the fire...I use Vernon Buerg's ARC* S/W. There are no ethic problems as the documentation I received encourages payment to SEA, and there are no performance problems as it is scrupulously follows SEA-standard, and is fast.