ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/pcmagvol/pcmagvol.txt pcmagvol.txt About the deletion of all PC Magazine utilities from Garbo The chronology of the essential events: -------------------------------------- Fri 22-Jul-1994: PC Magazine's editor at the time Robin Raskin publicly releases a permit for noncommercial distribution of the PC Magazine program collections to the program archives on the Usenet news. [The public posting is included at the end this file] Fri 22-Jul-1994: Garbo archives maintainer (Timo Salmi) responds both on the Usenet news and privately informing of taking up the offer, and lists the relevant arrangements at Garbo archives. [The public posting is included at the end this file] Thu 5-Dec-2002: Ms. Tara Garfinkle tara_garfinkle@ziffdavis.com IP Manager of Ziff Davis Media Inc emails a litigious letter to Timo Salmi accusing Garbo program archives of "Unauthorized [sic] Hosting of Ziff Davis Utilities" and demands us to ".. immediately [to] cease and desist from any and all actions to reproduce, distribute, publish or prepare derivatives of any Ziff Davis content (including Utilities) or parts thereof on your website." The email then goes on to threaten with potential claims on damages. Fri 6-Dec-2002: Ms. Garfinkle's email reaches Timo Salmi during what is the Finnish Independence Day and thus also an official holiday in Finland. Sat 7-Dec-2002: Timo Salmi alerts by email the rector of the University of Vaasa, the head of the university's computer center, and the director of administration of the university about the litigious letter from the PC Magazine. Ms. Garfinkle is informed of the existence of a distribution permission. Sat 7-Dec-2002: All the known PC Magazine material is deleted from Garbo archives. Tue 10-Dec-2002: Ms. Garfinkle is informed by Timo Salmi by email of the deletion together with "guarantee[s] that in the future [Timo Salmi] will stay away from PC Magazine, all and any of its utilities, activities and anything else that may be related or produced under the auspices of [the] Magazine." Wed 11-Dec-2002: The relevant correspondence is forwarded to the attention of the PC Magazine's Chief Editor Stephanie Chang stephanie_chang@ziffdavis.com by Timo Salmi by email. Thu 12-Dec-2002: The current account of the events information file is first written to avert potential enquiries from Garbo's users. Mon 20-Oct-2008: No responses to the account provided by Garbo archives nor any apology for the unfounded accusation have been forthcoming from the PC Magazine to this date. Ziff Davis, of course, have every right to withdraw the earlier distribution permission, but their cavalier handling of the matter feels singularly lacking in the most elementary civilized manners. What does this incident say about today's American business culture? -- Prof. Timo Salmi ftp & http://garbo.uwasa.fi/ archives 193.166.120.5 Department of Accounting and Business Finance ; University of Vaasa mailto:ts@uwasa.fi ; FIN-65101, Finland Timo's FAQ materials at http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/tsfaq.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Date: Fri, 22 Jul 1994 04:02:05 GMT -From: rraskin@pipeline.com (Robin Raskin) -Newsgroups: comp.archives.msdos.announce -Subject: PC Mag files on the Internet To all, Thank you for taking the time to write regarding PC Mag's distribution of utilities. The many letters I have received on this subject have reaffirmed my respect for both the Internet and the power of the written word. Let me respond to the closest thing to an original posting I can find: This message was posted on the SimTel Software Repository : > Because of a claim by PC Magazine that it has exclusive rights to the > distribution of their programs on the Internet, the entire /msdos/pcmag > directory and some programs in other directories have been deleted from > the SimTel Software Repository. SimTel's posting is in response to a column I wrote in the July Issue of PC Magazine (page 30). In that column I wrote about the experiences PC Magazine had while creating their WWW server. Our server is a compliment to PC Magazine and a service to you. It is NOT, nor was it ever, intended to be the sole source of PC Magazine utilities. Posting the PC Magazine utilities on the Internet is welcome. PC Magazine utilities can be copied, but are copyrighted. You are free to make copies and distribute the utilities to others provided no charge is involved. Making copies or using any portion for commercial purposes is prohibited. I am sorry, that because of some unfortunate wording, I may have inadvertently confused some of the ftp administrators who subsequently responded by removing the utilities from their repositories. I will be contacting them individually to help restore their services. I truly regret any inconvenience or ill-will that the column caused. You can help me by posting this message anywhere you see people asking about PC Mag utilities. Robin Raskin PC Magazine rraskin@pipeline.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Date: Fri, 22 Jul 1994 06:11:18 GMT -From: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi) -Newsgroups: comp.archives.msdos.announce -Subject: Re: PC Mag files on the Internet Robin Raskin wrote: : I am sorry, that because of some unfortunate wording, I may have : inadvertently confused some of the ftp administrators who subsequently : responded by removing the utilities from their repositories. I will : be contacting them individually to help restore their services. Thank you. I have subsequently restored the material to Garbo archives. I am always pleased about a constructive resolution. I have rearranged the PC Magazine material at Garbo so that it now is in two directories. The directories are /pc/pcmagutil and /pc/pcmagvol with the following descriptions pcmagutl : Individual utilities and updates related to the PC Magazine pcmagvol : The volume collections of the PC Magazine All the best, Timo .................................................................. Prof. Timo Salmi Co-moderator of comp.archives.msdos.announce Moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous FTP archives 128.214.87.1 Faculty of Accounting & Industrial Management; University of Vaasa Internet: ts@uwasa.fi BBS +(358)-61-3170972; FIN-65101, Finland