prindle@NADC.ARPA (Frank Prindle) (10/01/88)
There are no *legal* problems because Columbia's copyright (not to mention their agreement with Henson Associates Inc. to use the name) allows for unlimited free distribution. The problem appears to be one of USENET protocol; as I understand it, it is deemed inappropriate to post long strings of hexadecimal digits (or long source programs for that matter) on the general distribution newsgroups such as comp.sys.cbm. These long postings will travel over hundreds of costly communication paths and plant themselves firmly on thousands of disks, even where they are not desired. That is why special "binaries" subgroups are formed; these may be much more restricted in their distribution without restricting the general group. Unfortunately, USENET protocol also only allows formation of a binaries newsgroup when the level of interest in such is high enough to warrant the use of net bandwidth for this purpose. Comp.binaries.cbm has flunked this test. Yes, Kermit 2.1 is a wonderful program to have, but it is also a very large binary program. The manual alone is about the size of a month's postings on this group. For a few bucks each, all 12 or so readers of this newsgroup who currently need a copy can get it by mailing diskettes around the country; I'm sure the cumulative cost of posting it on this newsgroup would far exceed this. Not to mention the personal agony of each recipient who has to figure out how to get the Kermit binary onto his 5.25 inch GCR encoded diskette without the benefit of already having Kermit up and running on a 64, only to have it fail to work because he forgot to create the KERMIT.INI file according to the directions. Just to get the ball rolling, I'll volunteer to send a copy to anyone who mails me a blank diskette and stamped self-addressed return diskette mailer. Just drop me a net-note and I'll send you my mailing address. I guarantee you'll have Kermit 2.1 up and running long before the "binaries" issue is ever resolved to anyone's satisfaction. Sincerely, Frank Prindle Prindle@NADC.arpa (rutgers!prindle%nadc.arpa -or- rutgers!nadc.arpa!prindle for UUCP fans)