The following document was obtained by me from the Federal Courthouse in Milwaukee. It is the original letter from SEA's attorney to Phil Katz of PKware dated 12-23-87. (from file SEA-PK-M.ARC) Pay particular note to the following paragraph: I am also instructed to advise you that SEA is prepared to offer you a license, on reasonable terms, that would allow you to dis- tribute PKARC.COM and PKXARC.COM as non-commercial software. It is strange that as of December 87, SEA was NOT all that bent out of shape about the use of pkARC.com and pkxARC.com. I bet it will also come as a surprise to a lot of you that: My Client, System Enhancement Associates (SEA) is the creator and owner of its proprietary, the present MS/PC-DOS "standard", data compression/storage software programming product known as "ARC." My question to you the readers: If SEA's ARC is the present "stan- dard", then why don't many people use it? Also inclosed is the reply to this letter. Karen Little, Milwaukee, WI -- first posted on Exec-PC 9-5-88 + + + To: Phil Katz Dated: December 23, 1987 From: Thomas M. Marshall, Esq., Attorney to SEA & Thom Henderson You will notice that every time he refers to ARC, he uses quote marks. Dear Mr. Katz: My Client, System Enhancement Associates (SEA) is the creator and owner of its proprietary, the present MS/PC-DOS "standard", data compression/storage software programming product known as "ARC." At great expense and over the past few years, SEA has evolved its product, via world-wide "shareware" distribution and licensing of commercial and government Licensees, so that "ARC" is a vital commer- cial product and important asset of SEA's business. SEA has retained me to assist in protecting its interests in "ARC", its proprietary technology and the goodwill it has developed. I have been instructed to contact you in an effort to address an important matter that has arisen. - 2 - The development and distribution by you of "ARC compatible" competing products you call "PKARC" and "PKXARC", also distributed via the same "shareware" form of marketing and very recently being the subject of advertising addressed to the same "commercial market", has and is being followed by SEA with great concern. Any objective or subjective comparison of the features and functions, the user interfaces' "look and feel" and the documentation of your "PKARC/PKXARC" products and their advertising/marketing with SEA;s "ARC" establishes that your products and your marketing methods are substantially the sea and a copy of SEA'S "ARC". Thus, your acts in the past and as you continue with them constitute a serious infringement of my Client's intellectual property rights, including specifically its Federally protected Copyrights. Under these circumstances, I am instructed to demand that you im- mediately cease and desist from any further distribution, advertising or promotion in any way of your products that infringe my Client's rights. I am also instructed to demand that you undertake immediate- ly to withdraw your infringing products from any source from which they are available by any means. I am also instructed to advise you that SEA is prepared to offer you a license, on reasonable terms, that would allow you to dis- tribute PKARC.COM and PKXARC.COM as non-commercial software. Please advise me, personally or through your attorney, at once of the actions you undertake to comply with my Client's Demands and report to me on the progress of your efforts to withdraw your in- fringing products from the market. Very sincerely yours, Thomas M. Marshall, Esq. - 3 - To: Thomas M. Marshall Dated January 8, 1988 From: Harry Lensky, Safer, Lensky & Kahn, SC, for PKware Dear Mr. Marshall: This office represents PKWARE, Inc. Our client has received your letter dated December 23, 1987, addressed to Mr. Phil Katz. That letter has been turned over to our office for response. In this letter, you have indicated that our client's product, "PKARC/PKXARC," its "look and feel," its "advertising/marketing," and its "documentation" are substantially the same as that of your client's. It is claimed by you that these acts "constitute a serious infringement of my client's intellectual property rights, including specificially its federal protected copyrights." We disagree. The central issue is whether or not our client, in fact, copied your client's program, if your client's program was protected by a copyright. It is our client's position that it did not copy your client's program. Basically, your client developed a program which was based on work done by others which is in the public domain, such as the algorithm developed by D. Huffman, which was referred to as "Squeezing;" the Ziv-Limpel Welch "ZLW" algorithm. There are also numerous indications in your client's source code, which has been widely published, that your client's program was taken from programs which were also part of the public domain. It is our client's position that it developed a system which is not a copy of your client's program. It was developed independently using some of the same sources that were available to all who desire to develop programs in this area. There are numerous other parties who have developed such programs. See article by Russell Nelson in DR. DOBB'S JOURNAL, March, 1987, "ARC Wars: MS-DOS Archiving Utilities." There has been no copyright infringement by our client. OUr client is not obligated to your client in any manner. Very truly yours, Harry Lensky - 4 - Karen's comments: For all you future and current shareware developers who wish to IMPROVE upon current software technology, these letters should put an absolute chill in your creative bones. In order for PKware to DEFEND ITSELF against the SEA suit, it is estimated it would have cost him a minimum of $100,000, but more likely it would have been a HALF MILLION DOLLARS and would have been tied up in the courts for 3 to 4 years. Phil Katz is currently 26 years old and wrote the popular file compression program in his early 20s. His contributions greatly enhanced the BBS system, and the seeds for these contributions were found within the BBS system. Just how sophisticated is the PKware "evil" empire? Well, the subpena was delivered by Thomas M. Marshall, Esq, to the KATZ CORPORATE EMPIRE, ie, the family home he does business out of. Mr. Marshall was received by Phil's mom. Because it was a hot day and Mr. Marshall was sweating, she offered to seat him at her kitchen table. He purchased a PKware File Compression program, and then on his way out the door said something like "Oh, by the way (rest of the text missing).