Editing Phil Katz

{{Short description|American software developer (1962–2000)}}
{{for|the Medal of Honor recipient|Phillip C. Katz}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Phil Katz.jpg
| name        = Phillip Walter Katz
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1962|11|03}}
| birth_place = [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|2000|04|14|1962|11|03}}
| death_place = Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
| other_names = 
| known_for   = Co-creator of [[Zip (file format)|Zip file format]]<br />
[[PKZIP]]
| occupation  = [[Computer programmer]]
}}

'''Phillip Walter Katz''' (November 3, 1962&nbsp;– April 14, 2000) was a [[computer programmer]] best known as the co-creator of the [[ZIP (file format)|ZIP]] file format for [[data compression]], and the author of [[PKZIP]], a program for creating zip files that ran under [[DOS]]. 

A copyright lawsuit between System Enhancement Associates (SEA) and Katz's company, [[PKWare|PKWARE]], was widely publicized in the [[bulletin board system|BBS]] community in the late 1980s. Katz's software business was very successful, but he struggled with [[social isolation]] and [[chronic alcoholism]] in the last years of his life.

== Education and career ==
Phil Katz was a graduate of Nicolet High School in [[Glendale, Wisconsin]]. He graduated from the Computer Science Engineering program at the [[University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.pkware.com/about-us/phil-katz | title=Phil Katz PKWARE Founder | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101001181829/http://www.pkware.com/about-us/phil-katz | archive-date=2010-10-01 | url-status=dead}} from [[PKWARE, Inc.]]</ref> After his graduation, he was hired by the [[Allen-Bradley]] company as a programmer. He wrote [[source code|code]] to run [[programmable logic controller]]s, which operated manufacturing equipment on shop floors worldwide for Allen-Bradley's customers.

=== PKARC and PKWARE ===
Katz left Allen-Bradley in 1986 to work for Graysoft, a [[Milwaukee]]-based [[software]] company. At the time, he had worked on an alternative to Thom Henderson's [[ARC (file format)|ARC]], named PKARC. ARC was written in [[C (programming language)|C]], with the source code available on System Enhancement Associates' [[bulletin board system]] (BBS). PKARC, written partially in [[assembly language]], was much faster. Katz had a special flair for optimizing code: besides writing critical code in assembly language, he would write C code to perform the same task in several different ways and then examine the compiler output to see which produced the most efficient assembly code. He first publicly released only PKXARC, an extraction program, as [[freeware]]. Its much greater [[Speedup|speed]] caused it to spread very quickly throughout the BBS community. Strong positive feedback and encouragement prompted Katz to release his compression program, PKARC, and eventually to make his software [[shareware]]. He founded [[PKWARE, Inc.]] (Phil Katz Software) in 1986, with the company's operations located in his home in [[Glendale, Wisconsin]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONTROVERSY/LAWSUITS/SEA/pksuit.txt|title=Phil Katz (PKARC author) sued by SEA (ARC author)}}</ref> but he remained at Graysoft until 1987. Steve Burg, a former Graysoft programmer, joined PKWARE in 1988.

=== PKZIP ===
{{main|PKZIP}}
PKZIP made Katz one of the most well-known shareware authors of all time. Although PKWARE became a multimillion-dollar company, Katz was more noted for his technical expertise than business prowess. His family assisted him in running the company, but he eventually fired them when they denied him access to the company's profits.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONTROVERSY/LAWSUITS/SEA/katzbio.txt|title=The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz}}</ref>

Katz was adamantly opposed to [[Microsoft Windows]] in the early 1990s. {{citation needed|date=October 2023}} This led to PKWARE missing out on the opportunity to be the first to bring PKZIP to the platform, with [[WinZip]] becoming the standard tool on the platform instead.

==Lawsuits==
In the late 1980s, a dispute arose between System Enhancement Associates (SEA), maker of the ARC program, and PKWARE. SEA sued Katz for trademark and copyright infringement. The most substantial evidence at trial was from an independent software expert, John Navas, who was appointed by the court to compare the two programs. He stated that PKARC was a [[derivative work]] of ARC, pointing out that comments in both programs were often identical, including spelling errors.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.skepticfiles.org/mys4/hendersn.htm|title=Thom Henderson, president System Enhancement Associates voice: (201) 473-5153 data: (201)|website=www.skepticfiles.org|access-date=2015-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140630235252/http://skepticfiles.org/mys4/hendersn.htm|archive-date=2014-06-30|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On August 2, 1988, the plaintiff and defendants announced a settlement of the lawsuit, which included a confidential cross-license agreement. Under the agreement, SEA licensed PKWARE for all the ARC-compatible programs published by PKWARE during the period beginning with the first release of PKXARC in late 1985 through July 31, 1988, in return for an undisclosed payment. PKWARE agreed to pay 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. In exchange, PKWARE licensed SEA to use its source code for PKWARE's ARC-compatible programs. PKWARE also agreed to cease any use of SEA's trademark "ARC" and to change the names or marks used with PKWARE's programs to non-confusing designations. The remaining details of the agreement were sealed. In reaching the settlement, the defendants did not admit any fault or wrongdoing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONTROVERSY/LAWSUITS/SEA/release.txt|title=Joint press release}}</ref> The Wisconsin court order showed the defendants were ordered to pay damages to the plaintiff for the defendants' acts. Namely, the defendants were found to be infringing the plaintiff's copyrights, infringing trademark, as well as performing acts of unfair trade practices and unfair competition.<ref>''System Enhancement Associates, Inc. v. PKWare, Inc. and Phillip W. Katz'', No. 88-C-447, [http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONTROVERSY/LAWSUITS/SEA/judgment.txt Judgment for Plaintiff on Consent] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050603080013/http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONTROVERSY/LAWSUITS/SEA/judgment.txt |date=2005-06-03 }}, E.D. Wisc. (August 1, 1988)</ref>

The leaked agreement document revealed that under the settlement terms, the defendants had paid the plaintiff $22,500 for past royalty payments and $40,000 for expense reimbursements. In addition, the defendants would pay the plaintiff a [[royalty fee]] of 6.5% of all revenue received for ARC compatible programs on all orders received after the effective date of the agreement. Such revenue would include any license fees or shareware registrations, received after the expiration of the license, for ARC compatible programs. In exchange, the plaintiff would also pay a commission in the amount of 6.5% of any license fees received by the plaintiff from any licensee referred to the plaintiff by the defendants, whether before or after the license termination date.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONTROVERSY/LAWSUITS/SEA/agrement.txt|title=System Enhancement Associates vs. PKware, Inc CONFIDENTIAL CROSS-LICENSE AGREEMENT}}</ref>

After the lawsuit, PKWARE released one last version of its 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. However, following the renaming, SEA filed a lawsuit against PKWARE for contempt, for continually using the plaintiff's protected mark "ARC" by turning ARC from noun into verb in the PKPAK manual.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONTROVERSY/LAWSUITS/SEA/contempt.txt|title=System Enhancement Associates vs. PKware, Inc}}</ref> The United States district court of the East District of Wisconsin ruled SEA's motion was denied, and the defendant was entitled to recover the legal cost of $500.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONTROVERSY/LAWSUITS/SEA/contempt.spk|title=UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN Case No. 88-C-447}}</ref>

The SEA vs. PKWARE dispute quickly expanded into one of the largest controversies the BBS world had ever seen.<ref>''BBS Documentary'', Episode 8, [https://archive.org/details/BBS.The.Documentary], Accessed as of 13.07.2012</ref> The suit by SEA angered many shareware users who perceived that SEA was a "large, faceless corporation" and Katz was "the little guy". In fact, at the time, both SEA and PKWARE were small home-based companies. However, the community largely sided with Katz, because SEA was attempting to retroactively declare the ARC file format to be [[closed software|closed and proprietary]]. Katz received positive publicity by releasing the APPNOTE.TXT specification, documenting the Zip file format, and declaring that the Zip file format would always be free for competing software to implement. The net result was that the ARC format quickly dropped out of common use as the predominant compression format that bulletin board systems used for their file archives, and after a brief period of competing formats, the Zip format was adopted as the predominant standard.

== Alcoholism and death ==
Katz battled [[alcoholism]] for years. The earliest known arrest occurred in 1991. About a year later, Katz was again convicted of [[drunk driving]]. Between 1994 and September 1999, Katz was arrested five times for operating after suspension or revocation of his driver's license.

Before his death, Ozaukee County Sheriff's Department had several outstanding warrants against Katz, including jumping [[bail]] and the charges of operating an automobile while intoxicated and operating after revocation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONTROVERSY/LAWSUITS/SEA/warrant.txt|title=Outstanding Warrants for Phil Katz (2000)}}</ref>

On April 14, 2000, at the age of 37, Katz was found dead in a hotel room with an empty bottle of peppermint [[schnapps]] in his hand. A [[coroner]]'s report stated his death was a result of [[acute pancreatitis|acute pancreatic bleeding]] caused by chronic alcoholism.<ref>{{cite news |title=Famed software pioneer dies at 37 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=20000422&id=0bsaAAAAIBAJ&pg=5028,1021351 |publisher=[[Journal Sentinel]] |date=2000-04-22 |access-date=2013-10-20 }}{{Dead link |date=December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url-access=limited |first1=Matt |last1=Murray |first2=Jeffrey |last2=Tannenbaum |title=The Rise and Fall of a Software Star; Phil Katz Loved Code -- and Liquor |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB961363319756539141 |newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=2000-06-19 |access-date=2016-12-16 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url-access=limited |first1=Lee |last1=Hawkins |title=The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz |url=http://www2.jsonline.com/news/state/may00/katz21052000a.asp |date=2000-05-21 |newspaper=[[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]] |access-date=2023-11-26 |archive-date=2007-12-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071221103157/http://www2.jsonline.com/news/state/may00/katz21052000a.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of deaths through alcohol]]
* [[PKLite]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071221103157/http://www2.jsonline.com/news/state/may00/katz21052000a.asp |date=December 21, 2007 |title=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report about Phil Katz }}
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070911221748/http://www2.jsonline.com/news/obits/apr00/katzphillipw041900.asp |date=September 11, 2007 |title=Death notice for Phillip Katz }} ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.''
* [http://www.esva.net/~thom/arczip.wmv "Compression"], a video documentary about the arc vs zip controversy (WMV format) from [[BBS: The Documentary]]
* [http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONTROVERSY/LAWSUITS/SEA/katzbio.txt Katz bio] from [[BBS: The Documentary]]
* [http://blog.accentient.com/hanging-with-phil-katz/ Hanging out with Phil Katz] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206121538/http://blog.accentient.com/hanging-with-phil-katz/ |date=2013-12-06 }}
* [http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/871005-the-411-on-zip-files-how-a-standard-was-born The 411 on ZIP files: How a standard was born]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Phil}}
[[Category:1962 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:Alcohol-related deaths in Wisconsin]]
[[Category:American computer programmers]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:Deaths from pancreatitis]]
[[Category:People from Milwaukee]]
[[Category:University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni]]