Newsgroups: bit.listserv.novell
Date:         Fri, 9 Oct 1992 09:47:20 EDT
Reply-To:     Novell LAN Interest Group <NOVELL@SUVM.BITNET>
From:         "(Brad Clements)" <bkc@MURKWORKS.COM>
Subject:      MurkWorks FTPD NLM vis Free Czech NLM (long)

Before this issue gets totally out of hand, I thought it would be worthwhile
to explain our viewpoint on this issue.  I should probably wait to hear from
the Czech author before posting this, however I have not heard from him today
so it might be Tuesday before you all see this note.

What is MurkWorks?

MurkWorks is a small software company which specializes in TCP/IP applications,
including NLM's for NW386. Our goal is to show that quality software does not
have to be expensive.

Who is MurkWorks?

MW is mostly myself, Brad Clements. You may know me as the Clarkson CUTCP/CUTE
and Charon guy.

Why am I doing this?

In 1988 I released the first version of Telnet from Clarkson with PD support,
 then
came several more releases and the first version of Charon, etc.  Much of this
development has taken place on my own personal time. Additionally, during the
 past
two years Clarkson, like most other EDU sites, has begun to suffer from lack of
enrollment. As such Clarkson now has a non-hire policy, a (almost) no replace
policy, and a salary freeze. Our computer staff is constantly shrinking. Add to
 that
the recent receipt of 500+ RS/6000 workstations (MANY thanks to IBM Corp), and
the recent expansion in our network, and you'll see that the available
 University
time for development has gone to zero.

This leaves CUTCP and Charon and other freeware development in jeopardy.

I felt that it would be worthwhile to form a company which could provide good
software at a low price to help out other educational institutions and
 businesses.
With the help of Novell, my local bank and $20,000+ I have been sucessful in
sprouting the first bud of this company. That cost is still going up as we add
credit card processing, answering service, fax line and soon -- internet
 connection.

Our first product, designed to 1) provide recognition, 2) generate initial
 revenue
for future development, 3) establish a reputation for quality products .. was
 the
FTPD NLM for NW386 which we are marketing for $225.

For EDU sites, we offer a 35%
discount off that price. Contrast this with Novell's Flex-IP  or NFS NLM
and you'll get the idea that an EDU price of $146 for a supported product is
incredible. Plus, we give you three months to try it out free. Of course the
 Novell
products do other things as well, so the cost comparison isn't quite exact.

Those of you who have looked at our timed demo NLM and manual should have an
appreciation for the effort and quality control that has gone into its
 development.

Like Novell, we have spent a considerable amount of time developing, block
 testing
and regression testing the product to ensure that nothing unsavory happens to
 your
precious file servers. We back our products with a 60 day money back guarantee
 of
satisfaction, and provide it free to use for three months!

In fact, the original plan for the NLM was that if sales were sufficient come
December 1st, we would release a new three month timed demo, and continue this
 for
as long as was financially possible. This means that in effect, everyone does
 have
access to a free FTPD NLM which, like Novell's products, has been engineered
 with
quality in mind.

>From this one can infer that sales of the FTPD NLM is of utmost importance to
 my
goal (a company which provides low-cost quality software), which in the end
should benefit everyone.

--

Regarding the freeware NLM. First, there is no complaint that it is free and
therefore eliminates potential future sales.  In contrast, most sites which have
a concern for reliability and support will always choose a commercially
 supported
product (either Novell's or MurkWorks').

Rather, the issue is that the Czech NLM is a nearly identical clone of our
 product,
in our opinion. All of the command line arguments are the same, the new console
commands are the same, the format of the active session screen is the same (with
one new addition), the format of the configuration file is essentially the same.
The author himself has admitted that these features were copied from our NLM.

We are not claiming that the Czech author copied our source, nor did he reverse
engineer our NLM. Rather we claim that he essentially copied every feature and
nuance of our program (look and feel).

One of the key issues we would like to resolve is a new security mechanism which
we designed. Basically our NLM is more secure than Novell's (or most other FTP
Daemons) because we provide security based not only on the user's name and
 password,
but also based on the remote client's IP address or IP name. This is an
 innovation
of sorts which would be considered a non-obvious improvement, which the Czech
author copied from our design.

We would much prefer to have seen a freeware NLM which stood on its own merits,
based on the innovation of its author, rather than the simple copying of someone
else's hard work.

If the author were in the US, and if we had money to spare, we could legally
 take
him to task on this issue, based on the recent outcome of the Lotus/Borland
 suit.
However I personally beleive that litigation is not the answer, and will serve
 to
supress innovation in the future.

Rather, I have asked the author to change the command formats of his NLM, and
redesign the security mechanism so that it does not work like ours. I do not
 know
if he will do this. Perhaps if he does, you'll all end up with an NLM with even
better security than our own -- something we may in turn wish to license from
 him.
This would be preferable to the secretive copying which he did; he doesn't even
acknowledge nor site in his NLM that it was copied from ours.

If he continues to release his NLM in its original form, I encourage everyone to
get a copy of it, and ours, and compare the two for yourselves. It would be
laughable if it wasn't so insulting. The only difference between the two is that
ours comes with a 30 page comprehensive manual, compared to his 2 page text
 file.

I thank you all for reading through this long note, and hope that in the end
 this
entire issue can be peacefully and gracefully laid to rest. As has been
 mentioned
on the net, we all need developers like the Czech author (and presumably myself)
who have the time, energy, dedication and vision to devote their personal time
 in
an effort to provide free software for everyone. Perhaps he'd like to take over
the Charon/CUTE development in the event that I lose my job at Clarkson?

Brad Clements
Consultant
MurkWorks

PS.

** commercial advert, stop reading if you don't want to see it **

Version 1.32 of our NLM will be released shortly, many new and interesting
 features
are in the new version.

We now take credit card orders. Fax your order form and CC info to
	315-268-9812
be sure to include your server serial number

To receive a two-week security key, which will fully enable our NLM, send email
to info@murkworks.com and include your server serial number

Or call 315-265-4717 for more information.

** end of announcement, sorry **
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