The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

I logged in to read about CodeCombat. Instead, I read this submission. Mostly because it was sitting there forlornly with no comments. Alcoholism is really painful. It in no way lessens the excellence of the contribution of talented people; it only makes us cherish them more. We just don't get to help often because the destruction happens in a way that is inaccessible to outsiders.

"I can think of no more fitting epitaph than the final clause of the original ARC copyright statement: 'If you fail to abide by the terms of this license, then your conscience will haunt you for the rest of your life.'"

Deep.

> So now Phil Katz is dead. He drank himself to death, alone in a motel room, a bottle of booze in his hand and five empties in the room. One can only guess what drove him to such a tragic end, but it is a fitting demise for a man whose professional reputation is based entirely on a lie.

> I can think of no more fitting epitath than the final clause of the original ARC copyright statement:

> "If you fail to abide by the terms of this license, then your conscience will haunt you for the rest of your life."

What a stunningly vindictive and spiteful thing to say.

This is the very first time I've ever heard anyone say "he deserved to die because he stole my code."

(Don't worry, I'm not shooting the messenger! I appreciate your posting this - it's a fascinating look at human nature.)

This:

"In a negotiated settlement he again rejected any suggestion of licensing and went for a cash-out settlement. He repaid us for most of our legal bills and promised to stop selling his program sometime in 1988.

Then he fiddled with the file format a bit, renamed it from PKARC to PKZIP, and kept right on selling it. "

is contradicted by this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Katz

"... settlement of the lawsuit ... under which ... PKWARE paid SEA to obtain a license that allowed the distribution of PKWARE's ARC-compatible programs until January 31, 1989, after which PKWARE would not license, publish or distribute any ARC compatible programs or utilities that process ARC compatible files.

...

After the lawsuit, PKWARE released one last version of his PKARC and PKXARC utilities under the new names "PKPAK" and "PKUNPAK", and from then on concentrated on developing the separate programs PKZIP and PKUNZIP, which were based on new and different file compression techniques."

Wiki also says

"The SEA vs. PKWARE dispute quickly expanded into one of the largest controversies the BBS world ever saw."

Any greybeards care to comment?

I used to work at PKWARE back in 2007-2010, and his legacy was rarely discussed by everyone was well aware. Seemed like a bad ass to me.