The time has come to stand up and say to SEA - ENOUGH!!! They are alledgedly contacting numerous shareware authors who have written programs that read and/or write ARC files, demanding that the authors turn over their source code and pay 6 percent of their gross sales of such products to SEA. The whole thing centers around SEA's claim to a valid trademark on the word "ARC". Below you will find evidence that "ARC" was in COMMON USAGE prior to the date that SEA filed their trademark. ------------------------------------------------ Exhibit #1 - ARCHIV11.HLP (excerpts - notice the copyright date) Notice Changes in the system The problem What is an archive? File lists ARCHBLD -- build an archive ARCHGET -- retrieve files from an archive ARCHDIR -- display archive directory ARCHTYPE -- display or print archive members Field modification :Notice Copyright 1982 Michael M Rubenstein This documentation and the accompanying programs may be freely distributed for noncommercial purposes provided that the copyright notice is retained. The archive programs were written in pl/i and com- piled using the Digital Research pl/i-80 compiler. This help file is for the following versions archbld 1.1 archdir 1.1 archget 1.1 archtype 1.0 A large number of people have taken an interest in these programs and offered suggestions. I am grate- ful for all such assistance. The archive system is a collection of three programs which take a large number of small files and combine them into a larger file. In actual practice, an- other small file is built to keep track of the large data file. For example, one of my disks contains 27 files using 84k. 21 of these files are less than 2k of data. Most of these actually contain less than 1k of data. The largest file is 10k (that's quite a large source file for me.) Even this file is wast- ing about 1.5k. I ran this disk through the archbld program. That reduced the space to 48k for the data and 2k for the directory. That's a lot better. We can do better still. I now ran the data file through Richard Greenlaw's excellant squeeze pro- gram. That reduced it to 30k of data (and still 2k of directory), about 38% of it's original size. Michael M Rubenstein :What is an archive? An archive consists of two files, a data file and a directory file. The data file contains all the members of the archive. The directory file contains information on what files are in the archive and where they are. ------------------------------------------------------- Exhibit #2 - A message from the SysOp of a local Remote CP/M system. Notice the date. Date: 06/10/82 13:10 EST From: Ron Fowler (sysop, RCPM Westland, Mich) To: All RCPM Sysops Sub: Use of ARCH programs As promised, I've uploaded Michael Rubensteins ARCHIVE programs to SYSOP CBBS. There are four files (not including this message, which is not part of the package): ARCHBLD.COM - builds new archive files ARCHGET.COM - retrieves files from archive ARCHDIR.COM - lists directory of an archive ARCHIVE.HLP - help file for ARCH system (to be used with Rick Conns HELP pgm) I believe this set of programs will prove extremely useful in RCPM applications, especially considering the distribution problems we've had with public-domain packages made up of many files (YAM, SQ/USQ, and others). There are a couple of things to consider, however: 1) What should we consider as a maximum size for an archive file? I believe most users have in excess of 250K of disk storage per drive (with the notable exception of Osborne users); since archives can be de-archived to a different drive, I would think 200K would be a reasonable maximum (perhaps the Osborne segment would prefer 80 or 90K? -- do we have *that* many Osborne users?) 2) The ARCHIVE files work quite well in conjunction with Greenlaw's SQ/USQ file compression system. This brings up an interesting ques- tion: Should we squeeze a fileset BEFORE archiving, or after? There are advantages and disadvantages to each: a. Squeezing *after* archiving hastens the compression/decompression process: the relatively slow SQ and USQ programs have to operate on only one file. This also implies a lot less keyboard work. b. Squeezing *before* archiving yields a better compression rate, especially when binary and ascii files are intermixed. This is because the SQ pro- gram analyzes the file(s) before actually compressing, and selects an optimal encoding tree based on code distribution frequency. c. It is possible that a user with relatively small-capacity disk storage may not have enough room to unsqueeze a large .AQC (squeezed .ARC) file. My own preference is to squeeze AFTER archiving, but I have plenty of disk storage, and prefer the simplicity of dealing with only one file. ***** I picked up these programs from CIS (Compuserve Information Service...nee Micronet). They are written in PL/I, and the author tells me that source is available from the Laurel, MD RCPM system. Some improvements I'd like to see (any PL/I hackers among us?): 1) 'Twould be nice to have the .DIR and .ARC files combined into one file... should not be too difficult to write a utility to do this, although that would add another level of complexity to the package. 2) I'd like to see an ARCHTYP program to type out individual files with the archive file. 3) ARCHADD and ARCHDEL to add and delete files from the archive; presently it seems that the only way to add a file to an archive is to de-archive the entire set, then build a whole new archive. 4) Integration of all these function into one program, preferably written in assembly language. ****** That's all I have for now...comments about the package should be left on SYSOP, and I'll forward them to the author via CIS. I'd like to see some discussion regarding RCPM use (especially as concerns SQ/USQ) here on SYSOP. Enjoy! --Ron Fowler 6/10/82 ------------------------------------------------------- Exhibit #3 - Proof of common usage by publication: SIG/M, the (ACNJ) CP/M user group which distributes world-wide, released disk #112 with ARC files on it. Although not the archive program itself, this does establish a date of world-wide distribution of ARC files. ---------- [-CATALOG.112 - The catalog of the diskette] Sig/M volume 112 SIGNON/RBBS programs - Toronto RCP/M System -CATALOG.111 contents of Sig/M volume 111 released March 15, 1983 index name size crc description 112.01 RBBENT27.BQS 15K BA 04 112.02 RBBEXIT1.BQS 4K 50 7B 112.03 RBBMIN27.BQS 19K 8B FB 112.04 RBBMIN27.DQC 10K 4A E9 112.05 RBBS-I/O.NQW 3K 46 CE 112.06 RBBS-PC .BQS 18K 1B B8 112.07 RBBS31 .AQC 19K C5 32 112.08 RBBS31 .DQC 3K 09 01 112.09 RBBSTIME.FQX 2K 1F A8 112.10 RBSCLOCK.BAS 3K B7 6D 112.11 RBSPURGE.BQS 3K D6 D0 112.12 RBSPURGE.DQC 2K 24 4B 112.13 RBSUTL31.AQC 8K FB 12 112.14 SIGNON .SEE 2K BF 98 Explains disk. 112.15 SIGNON-1.ARC 64K C0 B2 112.16 SIGNON-1.DIR 1K 9F F6 112.17 SIGNON-2.ARC 62K 3B 28 112.18 SIGNON-2.DIR 1K A2 3A Copyright (c) 1983 by Sig/M-Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey Inc., Box 97, Iselin NJ, 08830-0097 ------------------------------------------------------- Exhibit #4 - More proof of common usage: [SIGNON.SEE - A "readme" file for the SIGNON program distribution, clearly stating that the archive programs are needed to extract the files and view the directory.] What to take: You'll need SIGNON-1.ARC, SIGNON-1.DIR, SIGNON-2.ARC and SIGNON-2.DIR, plus ARCGET11.OBJ (and probably ARCDIR11.OBJ as well). To see what's in these files, type "ARCDIR SIGNON-1", etc., which will give you a directory of the contents. To break the packages apart, the proper command is "ARCGET *.* SIGNON-1", etc. The result will be a large number of squeezed files which you'll then have to unsqueeze. Read the SIGNON.DOC file -- that'll explain how the program is expected to work and the order in which you should go about testing and assembling its components. The result will be a reasonably fancy user logging program which can be run as a front end to MINIRBBS (or maybe, with a bit of work, MINI- CBBS), especially suitable when those programs are used in an RCPM system. SIGNON's main attraction is for sysops rather than users -- it maintains user statistics and control over user status much more effectively than any other program thus far placed in the public domain. Because initially most sysops using SIGNON will be current users of ENTERBBS/RBBENTXX, a utility for converting ENTERBBS's 'USERS' file to a format readable by SIGNON will be available within a few days. That way, you won't have to ask your regular users to begin all over again. SIGNON is being distributed in two packages to make it possible for owners of slow modems to take one package at a time from systems that limit connect time to one hour/day. SIGNON-1 contains the stuff you'll need to get started. There should be enough in it to keep most sysops busy for a day or two. The program is slated for inclusion in a CPMUG disk, but that will undoubtedly take a few months to come out. Any sysop who's not in a hurry (if any such exist) might consider waiting until then. -- 7/25/82 -------------------------------------------------- Additional exhibits in the form of working executables which produce ARC programs for CP/M are available. In addition, I am prepared to sign a deposition to the effect that my Remote CP/M system did use, and make available for download, these programs on or about the dates shown above. --Keith Petersen, W8SDZ SysOp, RCP/M Royal Oak - 313-759-6569 (300, 1200, 2400, 9600 bps HST) August 4, 1988