kotlas@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Carolyn M. Kotlas) (09/06/88)
SEA, Katz Settle ARC Lawsuit (Copr. 1988, The Public (Software) Library. The following is reprinted, with permission, from PSL NEWS, Sept. 1988 issue. Please give full credit to this source when quoting.) What could have been a precedent-setting court case was settled out of court with Phil Katz turning over to SEA the monies derived from PKARC and rights to his own ARC enhancements, agreeing to quit using the ARC name in his programs, and agreeing to not write any more programs dealing with ARC files after January 1989. For those who arrived late, SEA, the original purveyors of ARC, a utility for compressing and combining of files, had sued Katz, the author of PKARC/PKXARC, for trademark and copyright infringement. In the opinion of most users, SEA has made virtually no improvements to its ARC program while Katz has produced many enhancements and speed improvements over ARC in his PKARC program. As a result, and because the facts of the case are still under wraps, the sympathies of many users go to Katz. While no reason was given for Katz's agreeing to settle, it appears to many people that SEA clubbed into submission with a lawsuit that Katz possibly could not afford to defend, whatever the merits of the case. In support of this view, people have pointed out that very little of SEA's ARC program is original code; most of the compression algorithms used in ARC come from public domain sources. Robert Blacher, a Washington DC attorney and sysop of a popular bbs there, says that a copyright on a program may not be valid if most of the code in the program came from public domain sources. Therefore, some people assume that Katz capitulated for financial and practical reasons rather than because he had done wrong. On the other hand, Vern Buerg, the author of the smaller, faster ARC utilities named ARCA, ARCE, etc., provides a clear example of how such trouble could have been avoided by Katz. Buerg, before distributing his own utilities, got approval from SEA, which Katz obviously did not do. WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER ARC*.* PROGRAMS? Although a legal precedent may not have been set, a club-in-the-head precedent has been set and we wonder how it will affect the authors of other programs who use the ARC name in their programs, such as ARC-Master, LARC, NARC, etc. SEA apparently feels (according to a SEA spokesman) than any program that even LOOKS at an ARC file must be licensed by SEA -- a position that seems highly unlikely to be upheld in court. But whatever the merits of their positions legally, other programmers have to be concerned about being forced to defend those positions in an expensive lawsuit. The bottom line appears to be that we are left with billions of bytes of ARC'ed files on BBS's, software disk libraries, and in the hands of private users all over the world, and the key to them is clearly controlled by a single individual. When ARC was first introduced as a replacement for public domain SQ (file compression) and LU (file combining) utilities, many people worried at the time about switching the standard over to a commercial product (shareware is just a distribution method, the software is still copyrighted, commercial software). It took a while, but the fears may have finally borne fruit. THE ALTERNATIVES While it may not be easy agreeing on a replacement standard for ARC files and converting those billions of bytes of files from ARC format to another format, it is something that we may have to look forward to in the near future. Katz is reportedly already working on a "new, improved" file compressing and combining utility that, of course, will not be ARC-compatible. But assuming it will be copyrighted and commercial, it would be no wiser for the BBS/Library world to tangle with Katz as to jump into the SEA. There has been some mention of a change-over to Rahul Dhesi's ZOO, which has never caught on because of its incompatibility with ARC. Now that such incompatibility is a blessing, it stock may rise. Unfortunately, while previous versions have been labeled public domain, Dhesi has just released a new version which is copyrighted and contains numerous restrictions on who may copy it. The restrictions exclude such organizations as user groups and major bbs's such as the Source and CompuServe. Meanwhile, ARC is not dead yet. Buerg's ARCA/ARCE utilities are still available for free use by individuals (at least for now). Another utility, NSWPC, by Dave Rand, is a public domain program that can un-ARC files, though it is possible that SEA could squash it too, as well as some other utilities that contain de-ARC'ing code. SEA LAWYER ON COMPUSERVE Attorney Jonathan Wallace, who has done some legal work for SEA but did not represent them in this suit, recently appeared on CompuServe's IBMSW Forum to act as a spokesman for SEA. He posted the following statements shortly before deadline: "1. ARC will always be shareware and SEA plans to announce some new measures for supporting other people's shareware, as has been done with Vern's products. "2. SEA is moving for a contempt order against PKWare on the grounds that the latter has failed to carry out some terms of the settlement. "3. Since the SEA/PK case involved allegations of copying of source, SEA has not fully articulated its philosophy of what, short of coping source, might constitute a copyright violation. SEA would like to point out, though, that it is not in the business of suing other people -- others who approach SEA for permission to create compatible products get a fair deal (Vern is an example). Source licenses have always been offered on reasonable terms, especially to shareware authors. Many of you have asked what other ARC compatible products are safe. The answer is that I don't have a complete answer to this question, but more announcements will be made in the near future. SEA wants to protect its copyrights, but in some cases that protection might take the form of requiring a one dollar fee for an unlimited licence to a shareware developer. That is, a one dollar, one time fee, a token legal recognition of the ARC copyright. The object is NOT to choke development by others." -- Carolyn Kotlas (kotlas@uncecs.edu) UNC-Educational Computing Service P. O. Box 12035 2 Davis Drive Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 State Courier #315 919/549-0671