Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!mailrus!uwmcsd1!lakesys!mikes From: mikes@lakesys.UUCP (Mike Shawaluk) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: New public domain archiving system development Message-ID: <1072@lakesys.UUCP> Date: 3 Oct 88 03:40:56 GMT References: <1297@micomvax.UUCP> <3218@ttidca.TTI.COM> <1068@lakesys.UUCP> <6760@dasys1.UUCP> Reply-To: mikes@lakesys.UUCP (Mike Shawaluk) Organization: Lake Systems - Milwaukee, WI Lines: 52 In article <6760@dasys1.UUCP> tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff) writes: > >So far this sounds no different from what SEA did: release a shareware >archiver and publish the C source. (Actually it is different, SEA >released the full production code, sufficient to recreate ARC.EXE if >you had their compiler, while the PK group talks about "example" source >code.) I have probably said more than I am qualified to say in regard to Phil's motives and ambitions in regard to his new product(s). Rather than further attempt to put his "thoughts" on the net, without his explicit review or approval, I'll put down a few of my own impressions: SEA has directly stated, via a message from Thom Henderson on Magpie BBS (see the "Thom Henderson Speaks!" message chain of a few weeks ago for the exact message), that they wish to "protect" the ARC format from possible corruption, and are requesting/requiring the authors of any ARC-compatible utilities to furnish them with copies of the programs in question, including, in some cases, source code! Further, they indicate a requirement for authors of such utilities to pay them royalties on these programs, albeit after a healthy amount of income has been received by the author. To the best of my knowledge, Phil has no such plans to perform anything of this nature. It may well be true that the "corruption" of the ARC format that Mr. Henderson speaks of is Phil's addition of Squashing to his (Phil's) program, as an additional compression type; however, this addition took place during a time when SEA themselves were adding new compression types to their own format with every release (remember ARC 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0?). Unfortunately, SEA stopped improving ARC (at least in the area of file compression efficiency) shortly before Squashing came into existance, and therefore, Phil's additions become the first "corruptions" of their format. Anyways, I digress. I don't think that the term "white hats" (as in heros) is really relevant in this discussion. Many of us see SEA's actions as unfair to Phil, or as a dangerous precedent for "shareware" authors, or any number of things. What is probably important to remember is that PKWARE's products are just that -- shareware. So are SEA's products. Which, of course, includes Vern Buerg's products, since, to the best of my knowledge, he has signed a licensing agreement with SEA concerning ARCE and ARCA, making those products essentially SEA products (they are supposedly included on the SEA ARC distribution disk you get when you send in their requested Shareware donation). Like many shareware authors, Phil depends upon the income from his products to meet operating expenses, pay bills, and other sundry details. He has chosen the shareware concept for "selling" his product, and hopes that it is of a superior nature to competitive products, so that users will WANT to use it, and will WANT to send their contributions to support its author(s)' further enhancements of its functions. But, you don't need me to rehash the Shareware Credo here, so I'll stop. >-- >Tom Neff UUCP: ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff - Mike Shawaluk (...!uunet!uwmcsd1!lakesys!mikes)