psrc@poseidon.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (10/17/88)
<"He seemed like such a nice man . . . and then he turned out to be a writer!"> There's been a lot of speculation as to why Software Enhancement Associates, the creators of the original ARC program, would go after Phil Katz and PKWARE. After all, it's not a big market, and there's not a lot of money at stake. Right? Wrong. Any of you with certain recent Borland products (including Turbo Pascal 5.0 and Turbo C 2.0) will find two things on your distribution disks. One is a utility called UNPACK.ARC; the other is one or more ".ARC" files. If you look for readable strings in UNPACK.ARC, you'll find the following: > PKXARC FAST! Archive Extract Utility Version 3.51 06-10-87 > Custom version for Borland International by PKWARE Inc. > This program Copyright (c) 1986,1987 PKWARE Inc. All RIGHTS RESERVED. > PKWARE Inc., 7032 North Ardara Ave, Glendale WI, 53209, U.S.A. > This program is provided AS IS without any warranty, express or > implied, including but not limited to fitness for a specific purpose. > UNPACK program, version 1.51. Copyright (c) 1988 Borland International. So, yet, SEA wants some or all of the $25 checks that happy users send Phil Katz. But the Wayne Whiners also want some or all of the larger checks that Philippe Kahn sends to Milwalkee as part of Borland's license agreement. And Borland is distributing ".ARC" files that SEA's ARC can't read! I imagine that Borland was distressed by the lawsuit and its outcome. I also imagine that Borland will continue to pay PKWARE, and that PKWARE is obligated to turn that money over to SEA. I haven't asked anyone about any of this. Paul S. R. Chisholm, psrc@poseidon.att.com (formerly psc@lznv.att.com) AT&T Bell Laboratories, att!poseidon!psrc, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind. ARC is claimed to be some kind of trademark of SEA.