27 Apr
2000
27 Apr
'00
2:05 p.m.
On Thu, 27 Apr 2000, Jim Strickland wrote:
They were called "System Enhancement Associates"(SEA) or soemthing
like that. PK wrote a faster version of ARC (called PKARC), SEA
sued, so PK wrote a new program called PKZIp. Word got out to all
the BBSs...in about 6 months, just about every ARC file was converted
to ZIP (besides, ZIP did a better job compressing anyway)
When did this happen? 1988-89?
Marvin wrote:
> I just received this notice from a friend of mine. This was the first notice
> I had seen. Anyone know any more of the details?
>
> This appears to be a revisionist report with regard to why Pkzip was
> created. I still have some of the email (somewhere) that circulated from
> both Katz and the creators of ARC when the creators of ARC sued Katz for
> IIRC having something to do with PKARC not being 100% compatible with the
> widely used ARC compressions scheme used.
I think the ARC people sued him because he hadn't licenced their compression
algorythm. This goes back to my BBS days, but if memory serves, ARC sued him,
he wrote PKZIP, and within a year ARC was no longer the defacto standard for
BBS's. I believe the company that wrote ARC is now extinct. Serves them right.