Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!iuvax!bobmon
From: bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Phil Katz VERSUS SEAWARE
Keywords: SEA-sick, Just for the Record..
Message-ID: <9930@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 21 Jun 88 21:43:26 GMT
References: <5162@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <11298@steinmetz.ge.com>
Reply-To: bobmon@iuvax.UUCP (RAMontante)
Distribution: na
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Indiana University
Lines: 59

davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
>
>  I personally feel that PK did some things which were not morally
>justified (regardless of the law).  He used a lot of the look and feel
>of ARC, he used the .arc filename, and he made the default of his
>program be incompatible with the original arc program.  I believe he did
>this to make money.  Certainly creating files which ARC can't unarc
>makes SEAware look bad.	[...]

Running lots faster than ARC makes SEAware look bad.  I'm not really
impressed that they've taken to distributing Buerg's ARCE -- does this
mean that SEA is no longer supporting their own software, but is
abandoning it to third parties?

>			 [...]  At least ARC has an error message "You need a
>newer version of ARC," while PKARC says "corrupted archive," implying
>that if pkarc doesn't know how to read it it's no good.  While SEAware
>released their source code to the world, PK guards his carefully, and
>the only way you can handle a pkarc on UNIX or Amiga (or wherever) seems
>to be to use an enhanced version of SEA's arc.

As you imply, SEA has obsoleted its own program at least twice, each time
adding an incompatible new compression method.  No change in extension, no
ability to force compatibility....and why should those other systems be
hamstrung more than they have to be by limitations of old MSDOS code?

	[...]
>and Thom Henderson has given away lots of source code. I forget the
>names of PKware's other products and where to get source...

PKfind is one.  I use it instead of the braindamaged MSDOS search command.
As for source, let me go out on a limb by repeating what I've heard --
Katz's source IS available, it just isn't on Usenet; and it happens to be
MASM source, which is one reason it wouldn't be too likely to appear on a
net full of Unix/C fanatics.  (I've *heard* that ARC source is available,
too -- tell me that it really is and I'll have heard it another time,
without yet seeing it myself or caring to.)

>  Why don't we stop arguing about moral grounds here and concentrate on
>the legal issues; did pkarc take something from SEAware which is
>protected by law? If he did they he should pay. Given the behavior of
>the two companies, I believe that it's easy to identify one company
>which has taken the "let's make a few bucks from this neat thing," and
>one which has done some blatently commercial things. The court will
>decide, not the net.

The (computer-illiterate) court may not decide; it may well be settled
out of court by rapacious (computer-illiterate) lawyers.  It may even
be settled by the relative affordability of those lawyers' fees.

There are significant moral issues here, and I'm not sure either party has
the moral high ground, but I am mightily offended by the party that moved the
moral issues into the amoral arena of the legislative system.  To the extent
that computer users form any sort of community, the community will be
worse off for this.

-- 
bob,mon						(bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu)
"In this position, the skier is flying in a complete stall..."