I most confess that probably a lot of my anger in this case has to do with my interactions with Connexin’s new employees. That is, people who joined the company after the founders, Fred and Edna Pytlak, had sold their interest and Pamlico had made a major investment.
It took two months for Connexin to schedule a meeting between myself, and some of their staff, to explain to them what the annual ARulesXL invoice was about. There were a number of people in the Zoom-like meeting (my first one) but it seems Bethany Williams was in charge. I presented a bit of the history of VacLogic and ARulesXL’s role in it.
Bethany Williams
After the explanations, Bethany Williams said she had discovered this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) from 2003, and said it gave them the right to use the software without paying. I was surprised. I explained that I wrote it, that it didn’t, and it had nothing to do with ARulesXL.
She then said, besides, ARulesXL is Open Source. I asked if they had downloaded sources. They hadn’t, but seemed to imply that Open Source was the same as Public Domain. It isn’t. Open Source ARulesXL.
She then added, and this might be the key moment in all of this, that new management of Connexin had paid the annual license fees for the last four years, but that didn’t mean they needed to, and that those payments were enough. I can still hear the scorn in her voice as she said “Don’t you think you’ve been paid enough.” (Who talks to people like that in a business meeting?)
Now, Fred Pytlak thought my contribution to Office Practicum (OP), giving them a competitive advantage in handling vaccines for a pediatric office, was a critical component in the success of the company. And that it helped make OP so valuable that Pamlico wanted to invest in it. Which led to what I presume are excellent salaries being paid to Bethany and other Connexin management. And she treats me as if I’m ripping them off?
Marc Abercrombie
So the meeting ended. Marc Abercrombie then sent me an email telling me they decided the MoU gave them the right to use the software, that they weren’t going to pay for an annual license, that they were going to use the software anyway, and get this, he hoped I had a good weekend. Nice touch.
I sent him one more email, asking him to show me the license they were running ARuleXL under. He emailed me a copy of the MoU.
Stacy Kilgore
A little time passes. I’m still trying to sort this out, and Marc says I should talk to the new CFO, Stacy Kilgore, who I’m told is willing to work things out. So we talk on the phone, and I patiently explain to him rule-based technology and the history of VacLogic. He is very polite, and listens patiently to my explanation of ARulesXL and it’s role in VacLogic, and the understandings I had with Fred Pytlak. He said he had no idea who Fred was.
I suggested that they should purchase a perpetual license for ARulesXL, so that this issue doesn’t come up each year, and quoted them a figure of $28,000 for it. At which point, this individual who was going to work things out, said “that will never happen.” Now here’s what you can’t capture in a text medium, such as this one. It was how he delivered that. He scoffed as he said it.
I asked why? He said the MoU. I said “BULL SHIT!” (I hope that captures my emotion.) He was offended that I lost my temper.
40+ Years of Good Faith Business
I have never in my 40+ years in the commercial software business been treated with such scorn and disrespect. By people who I had absolutely no history with, who were meeting me for the first time, and who were profiting from my software through a past relationship with the founders of the company.
In those 40+ years (I moved from aerospace into commercial software in 1979) I’ve worked for big companies and small, dealt with customers big and small, and been involved in all aspects of the business.
I have never, in those 40+ years, ever had a hostile relationship with a customer. There were issues, negotiations, etc., but always handled in good-faith, and always in mutually satisfactory ways. Such as my dealing with Fred and Edna Pytlak, and the low prices I charged them which reflected the environment I met them in, which was running a start-up from their kitchen table in Brooklyn.
I think it’s the contrast between the relationship I had with the founders, and the new Pamlico era management that is so bothersome to me. I’ve had absolutely no experience with such a hostile business environment, and I must admit, as these blog posts might indicate, I’m struggling with it.
I did try one last time to make a reasonable offer in that meeting.
My Last Offer
There was more to that meeting. Greg Anderson said there were some issues with VacLogic. The maintenance was still done on Windows 7, and it was taking two seconds to display results on customer machines. Valid concerns.
I’m pretty sure I knew where the delay was coming from, and how to fix it. I also thought it would be easy to migrate to Windows 10. So here was my last offer to them. I would help them migrate to an Open Source version of the software, migrate it to Windows 10, and look at the two second delay. All they had to do was pay the $7,000 one year license fee for one last year.
They told me, I’m paraphrasing here, to fuck off. That the MoU meant they didn’t have to pay me anything.
The Lawsuit
So now I’m suing, working through lawyers instead of talking directly to them. I’m asking for disgorgement (I didn’t know that was a word) of profits made distributing my software for profit without a license (a violation of Federal copyright law), and for them to stop using ARulesXL without a license.
We’ve each now spent (I’m guessing maybe more for them) around $100,000+ on the lawsuit, with no end in sight. See the Trump-like strategy they’re pursuing.
