papa%USC-CSE@USC-ECL.ARPA (04/17/84)
From: Marco Papa <papa%USC-CSE@USC-ECL.ARPA>
This is an excerpt from an article by Michael N. Huttner in the latest issue
of PC WEEK, entitled "Barnum Would Enjoy Hucksterism in Ads; Buyers Beware":
"... More than likely, it was one of Barnum's cunning descendants who
engineered the legendary "Great Kermit Hoax," by successfully contriving to
fleece Uncle Sam himself for a hefty sum before fading safely away into the
sunset.
According to our version of the story, our bright friend recently
contracted with an agency of the federal government to develop a personal
computer-to-mainframe communications software package. It seems the fellow
simply borrowed a working copy of a program called KERMIT from a library
collection of free, public-domain personal computer software. After making
some very cosmetic modifications, he then neatly proceeded to duplicate and
deliver the package as promised--and collected $ 495 per copy.
A very smooth job indeed...."