Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:18048 comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d:718 Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!peregrine!elroy!ames!ucsd!rutgers!cmcl2!phri!marob!manes From: manes@marob.MASA.COM (Steve Manes) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: PK361.EXE Message-ID: <367@marob.MASA.COM> Date: 13 Aug 88 09:47:03 GMT Article-I.D.: marob.367 References: <6084@xanth.cs.odu.edu> Organization: ESCC New York City Lines: 34 From article <6084@xanth.cs.odu.edu>, by rlb@xanth.cs.odu.edu (Robert Lee Bailey): > I agree. Suppose that SEAs attitude had been prevalent at the turn > of the century? Can you imagine the early automobile manufacturers > suing each other because their competitors product also happened to > have 4 wheels, an engine, and a steering wheel? What would your > car look like today? Each brand would be so different that a > separate class of drivers license would be required for each brand! The analogy ain't right. There seems to be some misapprehension in some quarters about what this case was about. It wasn't about assumed trademarks to the file extension, ".ARC", or about SEA trying to shoot down other competitors in the archiver racket. The case, to which PKware pled no contest, was over use of SEA's copyrighted code in the development of PKARC (the LZ algorithm isn't SEA's but its internal directory structures are) and "unfair trade practices" concerning what PKware did with that information, which was in effect to use SEA's own proprietary code to damage SEA in the marketplace. SEA didn't go after Vern Buerg for ARC-E and didn't go after Rahul Dhesi for ZOO and didn't go after Dean Cooper for DWC. These guys developed their own products and their own markets for programs that do virtually the same thing as SEA's ARC. > I guess that the developers of the UNIX ARC utility had better pack > their bags and go into hiding. They will probably be next on SEAs > "hit list". No, actually Thom Henderson has officially given his blessing to the Unix community to use his ARC source. His demand was that it not be used to develop knock-off ARC binaries for which the author claims a copyright. Nothing wrong with that. -- Steve Manes Roxy Recorders, Inc. Magpie-HQ BBS UUCP : {rutgers|cmcl2}!hombre!magpie!manes (212)420-0527 Smail: manes@MASA.COM