Intershop Ltd has no quarrel with the original author of Telix, Colin Sampaleaunu (a scholar and a gentleman) nor with his firm Exis Inc. However, at the beginning of 1994, Jeffrey L Woods, reputed President and C.E.O of deltaComm Inc of North Carolina and the new publishers of Telix caused a libellous file to be distributed called BRITAIN.DOC Presumably because he was too scared to put his own name to it, he fed some half truths to his employee Zack Jones. The parties libelled by BRITAIN.DOC have accepted that Zack Jones was fed wrong or incomplete information when he composed BRITAIN.DOC and have, therefore agreed to accept the apology of Zack Jones and take no further action against him. However, BRITAIN.DOC has left people with the abiding impression that either George Collins, Intershop or SpeedModem Ltd sold licensed copies of Telix without either accounting or paying for them. Leaving aside the fact that Intershop Ltd was only incorporated on 19 January 1994, all of these allegations are completely and utterly false. The German copyright holders to Telix were sent cheques in payment LONG before BRITAIN.DOC was disseminated and the banks concerned have microfilmed records that they were cashed by ELSA GmbH. The truth is less exciting and more prosaic: Jeffrey L. Woods was seriously scared by a competing product and suffered from short sightedness and bad temper at a Colorado Springs convention. And then hid away rather than apologise for his short sightedness and even shorter temper. * We will now examine each of the paragraphs of BRITAIN.DOC in turn: "Exis, Inc. [hereinafter "Exis"], original developer of Telix from 1982 through late 1992, had contracted with ELSA GmbH of Aachen, Germany [hereinafter "ELSA"], as the exclusive registration site for Europe." Close to the truth. But rather than being just a "registration site", it is Intershop Ltd's understanding that ELSA GmbH own all the rights to Telix within Western Europe. "ELSA and Exis then sold copies to a third registration site, Intershop, and later to another company in Glasgow, Speedmodem, Ltd., both with a contact person of George Collins [hereinafter "Intershop, et al"]. " Wrong. The original Tripartite Agreement was for Interstop (note the spelling) to handle all production (including labels) and to have their own algorithm engine. It was for this reason (that Interstop were doing the lions share of the work) that it was agreed that Exis Inc would get °6, ELSA GmbH would be sent °6 and Interstop retain °8. At the time that the Tripartite Agreement was made George Collins was an elected official of Interstop (to be precise, its' General Secretary. When he started working as an employee of SpeedModem Ltd it seemed sensible that he should continue to handle Telix related matters. In the event, after Telix 3.15 was produced - FOR THE SAKE OF CONVENIENCE - it was mutually agreed that °12 (including Exis Inc's share) would be sent directly to ELSA GmbH and they would handle label printing. It should be noted at this point that the W. European version of Telix has always been different to the N. American version and never required "branding" (something that Zack Jones, etc discovered only after he had authored BRITAIN.DOC and something that was later to cause no end of problems when deltaComm attempted to introduce updating patches.) "This arrangement was for the convenience of users in the United Kingdom, enabling them to pay in Sterling to a local site. " Correct. Previous to the Tripartite Agreement, Telix was being treated as Freeware. "Intershop, et al, was only to contact ELSA, a policy which was broken from time in order to expedite their demands." Wrong. No such agreement was made (although Exis, and later deltaComm Inc persistently maintained that their hands were tied and nothing could be done without the permission of ELSA GmbH.) "Exis sold all rights to Telix to deltaComm Development, Inc. [hereinafter "deltaComm"], on September 25, 1992. deltaComm and ELSA at that time renewed the agreement for ELSA to be the exclusive distributor for Telix in Europe (and recently renewed that agreement again in Germany, in January 1994)." deltaComm did not have very much choice. ELSA GmbH already owned all the rights to Telix in Western Europe. "The relationship between ELSA and Intershop, et al., soured slightly before the change in copyright ownership for reasons which will not be discussed." It was difficult to get answers quickly enough out of ELSA to maximise market opportunities. And ELSA couldn't comply with shipping instructions. "At that time, ELSA and deltaComm agreed that it would be in the best interests of all involved to change registration sites in the United Kingdom. To that end, ELSA has appointed as the new registration site for Telix: S.C.S. Ltd. Hall Road, Martham Great Yarmouth Norfolk, ENGLAND NR29 4PD" This is a severe case of time telescoping. It was to be many months after deltaComm bought Telix (and after the release of 3.20 and 3.21) before ELSA appointed a new registration site. At the time of writing, S.C.S. did NOT have Limited Liability (although Zack Jones probably still does not realise this nor that it is a criminal offence in the UK to claim Limited Liability status where it has not been granted). Perhaps more indicative of Jeffrey L. Woods business style is that he did not even inform his UK registration site, Interstop, of the change in ownership of Telix. "It has also come to our attention that companies that George Collins either controls or is associated with have continued to sell copies of Telix in Great Britain without first purchasing them from ELSA or deltaComm." At the time of writing, far from controlling any company, George Collins has never been an official or shareholder in any company whatever. (Although, like many of us, he has many close friends that own shares and or are company directors). Telix is licensed, not sold, and the original Tripartite Agreement was without limit of time and did NOT specify that labels had to be pre-purchased from anyone. The letters reproduced below will show that provisional labels were issued only after ELSA GmbH could not print them in time and ELSA GmbH were given more than enough warning. "Such copies may have had handwritten serial numbers on the disk labels that do not match the serial number formats of a Telix serial number. Some have been labelled "provisional serial number" diskettes." Correct. And the numbers were advised to both Jeffrey L. Woods and ELSA. "We regret to say that users who have purchased Telix in Great Britain who do not have a serial number that 1) matches the serial number format of Telix, and 2) cannot be accounted for as one of the several hundred that *were* sold to Intershop, et al., may not in fact be registered Telix users." Not in law. Interstop had, and continues to have the legal right to accept payment for Telix licences and subsequently pass °6 of that to ELSA GmbH and °6 to Exis Inc's heirs and successors. However, to get round the practical details of this, Intershop Ltd will shortly sponsor a disk swap: If and when "Project CAIN" is released, ALL registered users of Telix (wherever in the world those disks were registered and whether the serial numbers are provisional or not) will have 21 days to obtain a free upgrade to whatever "Project CAIN" is renamed. "ELSA no longer sells copies of Telix, directly or indirectly, to Intershop, et al., and has not since August, 1993." Also less than the truth. See following copies of correspondence. "The directors of Intershop, et al., have also refused requests to turn over the complete database of the names and addresses of those who purchased Telix from those companies." Entirely and utterly wrong and deliberately mendacious in so far as Jeffrey L. Woods must have lied to his employees. Jeffrey L. Woods keeps trotting out this lie at every opportunity and now the danish welch Bo Bendtsen has started to ring the changes on this theme. Nobody from either deltaComm Inc or ELSA GmbH have ever verbally requested or made any written requests for these databases to any of the british organisations involved (including Interstop, Compucom Europe Ltd, SpeedModem Ltd or Intershop Ltd.) * And now the correspondence, old letters first, new ones later: COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D5100 Aachen FAXED TO:010-49-241-917 7600 GERMANY 5 December 1991 Dear Sir Re: Telix Order Please may we order another tranche of Telix 3.15gb labels. Since you have been in the habit of producing them on sheets containing 24 labels, our order is for 7 sheets = 168 labels @ DM12 each. Please would you debit my VISA card 4508 9760 2157 0015 Expires 04/92 in the name Dr G. Collins Compucom Europe Ltd and dispatch to us today if possible. [If you would prefer, you may obtain authorisation only (so that you are assured of payment) and we will wire transfer the Deutschemark] Please would you ensure that it is dispatched in a small (A5?) hard backed envelope and sent `Eilzustellung' to the correct address as above (The last lot of labels arrived damaged and two weeks late because they had been placed in a padded bag and sent to our old Dixon Street address - we enclose a poster reminder for your dispatch department). Thankyou for your co-operation in this matter und ich w│nsche alle ein frohe Weihnachten und ein gl│ckliches Neues Jahr! Sincerely yours for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD ACHTUNG! (Telix GB) Compucom Europe Ltd trading as INTERSHOP have moved from 6 Dixon Street, Glasgow. The new address is: Compucom Europe Ltd Top Floor Right 136 Holland Street GLASGOW Scotland G2 4NB =============================================================== COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D5100 Aachen FAXED TO:010-49-241-917 7600 GERMANY 19 December 1991 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix What follows is based on the assumption that your company currently holds all the European rights to Telix 3.x: Currently in Ireland there is a requirement for a Minitel program. The Irish have just introduced a new system which we understand is to the same specification as the French Minitel. We are currently writing a Minitel `add- on' to Telix. We would then anticipate selling this `Minitel Telix' (named provisionally) at °36 instead of the °20 we currently charge for Telix alone. We wish to start marketing the program on January 6, 1992. What is your attitude? The main obstacle to success for Telix in the British market has been the lack of a Prestel emulation (which, you will appreciate, is rather different from Bildschirmtext standard). Do you have such an emulation for Telix or alternatively, what is your attitude to us writing one? Currently people are not clear on whether Telix is or is not shareable within Europe. We would like to take the attitude that the Canadian current shareable version of Telix may be used in Europe only within the terms of the license contained within its own documentation. That would mean that Shareware `Vendors' need to obtain written permission before they are allowed to distribute it. We propose that, within Europe, any such distribution requests from English Language Libraries or Vendors are routed through ourselves for approval/disapproval. We propose that we give permission to only a very few of the more reputable vendors and then only for 3 months at a time and take action against anyone else distributing old copies (which do not bear your or our registration address) without such permission. Recently we experienced difficulties in ordering another tranche of Telix 3.15gb labels. I know that Elsa has now grown to a very significant size, so would you be kind enough to give me the name or names and telephone numbers of the people within your organisation that we should talk to when we wish to order? Finally, your invoice does not make clear whether you debited my VISA card 4508 9760 2157 0015 Expires 04/92 in the name Dr G. Collins for the last tranche of Labels? Sincerely yours for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD cc: Exis Inc ============================================================== Exis Inc. Post Office Box 130, West Hill, ON M1E 4R4 Canada (416)-289-4641 (416)-289-4645 fax FAX COVER PAGE Date: December 21, 1991 To: George Collins Company: CompuCom Europe Fax: +44 041 204 5026 From: Jeff Woods Pages following: 0 If you did not receive all of the pages completely, please notify us immediately at (416)-289-4665 (fax) or (4160-289-4641 (tel). Dear Dr. Collins: While I cannot address this from an ELSA perspective, I can tell you about the limitations you will encounter in developing a Minitel/Prestel emulation for Telix. All emulations in Telix are hardcoded in the actual code. The only avenue we can see for an add-on to Telix to emulate Minitel would be via the SALT language, and you are severaly hampered by both the speed of SALT, and it's lack of true graphics capabilities (if I understand what Minitel is). We receive perhaps two request a month to add this emulation to Telix. This is not sufficient to warrant the extra time to add graphics capabilities to a text-based program (we are already quite behind a planned release date, and still ways off from a predicted one--we simply can't afford to slow down to add yet ANOTHER terminal that from all the requests we get is required by only a very small percentage of potential users). I would be extremely interested in knowing how you plan to add such emulation into the existing framework of Telix, and still maintain the well-known speed of Telix in the process. Licensing for shareware distribution in the British Isles is something that ELSA will have to address. Sincerely, Jeff Woods CC: Elsa, Dr. K. Langner ======================================================= COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D5100 Aachen FAXED TO:010-49-241-917 7600 GERMANY 23 December 1991 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix Please could you reply today to at least some of the points I addressed to you last week. I faxed you as follows: "What follows is based on the assumption that your company currently holds all the European rights to Telix 3.x: Currently in Ireland there is a requirement for a Minitel program. The Irish have just introduced a new system which we understand is to the same specification as the French Minitel. We are currently writing a Minitel `add- on' to Telix. We would then anticipate selling this `Minitel Telix' (named provisionally) at °36 instead of the °20 we currently charge for Telix alone. We wish to start marketing the program on January 6, 1992. What is your attitude? The main obstacle to success for Telix in the British market has been the lack of a Prestel emulation (which, you will appreciate, is rather different from Bildschirmtext standard). Do you have such an emulation for Telix or alternatively, what is your attitude to us writing one? Currently people are not clear on whether Telix is or is not shareable within Europe. We would like to take the attitude that the Canadian current shareable version of Telix may be used in Europe only within the terms of the license contained within its own documentation. That would mean that Shareware `Vendors' need to obtain written permission before they are allowed to distribute it. We propose that, within Europe, any such distribution requests from English Language Libraries or Vendors are routed through ourselves for approval/disapproval. We propose that we give permission to only a very few of the more reputable vendors and then only for 3 months at a time and take action against anyone else distributing old copies (which do not bear your or our registration address) without such permission. Recently we experienced difficulties in ordering another tranche of Telix 3.15gb labels. I know that Elsa has now grown to a very significant size, so would you be kind enough to give me the name or names and telephone numbers of the people within your organisation that we should talk to when we wish to order? Finally, your invoice does not make clear whether you debited my VISA card 4508 9760 2157 0015 Expires 04/92 in the name Dr G. Collins for the last tranche of Labels?" ie have we paid you yet or not? Sincerely yours for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD cc: Exis Inc ====================================================================== COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 : Exis Inc, Jeff Woods Post Office Box 130 West Hill, ON FAXED TO:010-1-416-289-4645 CANADA 23 December 1991 M1E 4R4 Dear Jeff Re: Telix We haven't had any reply from ELSA yet but I was very interested in your comments. (We are closed now until 30 December 1991) I can only reiterate what I said before: The MAIN obstacle to success for Telix in the British market has been the lack of a Prestel emulation. Clearly it would seem that we will be adding this as almost a stand-alone `add-in' module. But only when we get a reply from Elsa....Obviously we can't even get started now before the New Year - another missed marketing opportunity ! Merry Christmas! Sincerely yours for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD ============================================================== COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D5100 Aachen FAXED TO:010-49-241-917 7600 GERMANY 9 January 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix Please could you reply today to at least some of the points I addressed to you last year. I have now faxed you twice (on 19 & 23 December 1991) without any form of reply whatever! Those faxes were as follows: "What follows is based on the assumption that your company currently holds all the European rights to Telix 3.x: Currently in Ireland there is a requirement for a Minitel program. The Irish have just introduced a new system which we understand is to the same specification as the French Minitel. We are currently writing a Minitel `add- on' to Telix. We would then anticipate selling this `Minitel Telix' (named provisionally) at °36 instead of the °20 we currently charge for Telix alone. We wish to start marketing the program on January 6, 1992. What is your attitude? The main obstacle to success for Telix in the British market has been the lack of a Prestel emulation (which, you will appreciate, is rather different from Bildschirmtext standard). Do you have such an emulation for Telix or alternatively, what is your attitude to us writing one? Currently people are not clear on whether Telix is or is not shareable within Europe. We would like to take the attitude that the Canadian current shareable version of Telix may be used in Europe only within the terms of the license contained within its own documentation. That would mean that Shareware `Vendors' need to obtain written permission before they are allowed to distribute it. We propose that, within Europe, any such distribution requests from English Language Libraries or Vendors are routed through ourselves for approval/disapproval. We propose that we give permission to only a very few of the more reputable vendors and then only for 3 months at a time and take action against anyone else distributing old copies (which do not bear your or our registration address) without such permission. Recently we experienced difficulties in ordering another tranche of Telix 3.15gb labels. I know that Elsa has now grown to a very significant size, so would you be kind enough to give me the name or names and telephone numbers of the people within your organisation that we should talk to when we wish to order? Finally, your invoice does not make clear whether you debited my VISA card 4508 9760 2157 0015 Expires 04/92 in the name Dr G. Collins for the last tranche of Labels?" ie have we paid you yet or not? Sincerely yours for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD cc: Exis Inc ================================================================ COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D5100 Aachen FAXED TO:010-49-241-917 7600 GERMANY 14 January 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix I really must insist that you now send us some form of reply today to at least some of the points I addressed to you last year. I have now faxed you thrice (on 19 & 23 December 1991 and 9 January 1992) without any form of reply whatever! Those faxes were as follows: "What follows is based on the assumption that your company currently holds all the European rights to Telix 3.x: Currently in Ireland there is a requirement for a Minitel program. The Irish have just introduced a new system which we understand is to the same specification as the French Minitel. We are currently writing a Minitel `add- on' to Telix. We would then anticipate selling this `Minitel Telix' (named provisionally) at °36 instead of the °20 we currently charge for Telix alone. We wish to start marketing the program on January 6, 1991. What is your attitude? The main obstacle to success for Telix in the British market has been the lack of a Prestel emulation (which, you will appreciate, is rather different from Bildschirmtext standard). Do you have such an emulation for Telix or alternatively, what is your attitude to us writing one? Currently people are not clear on whether Telix is or is not shareable within Europe. We would like to take the attitude that the Canadian current shareable version of Telix may be used in Europe only within the terms of the license contained within its own documentation. That would mean that Shareware `Vendors' need to obtain written permission before they are allowed to distribute it. We propose that, within Europe, any such distribution requests from English Language Libraries or Vendors are routed through ourselves for approval/disapproval. We propose that we give permission to only a very few of the more reputable vendors and then only for 3 months at a time and take action against anyone else distributing old copies (which do not bear your or our registration address) without such permission. Recently we experienced difficulties in ordering another tranche of Telix 3.15gb labels. I know that Elsa has now grown to a very significant size, so would you be kind enough to give me the name or names and telephone numbers of the people within your organisation that we should talk to when we wish to order?" At least I now know from my statement that you debited my VISA card 4508 9760 2157 0015 Expires 04/92 in the name Dr G. Collins for the last tranche of Labels..... Sincerely yours for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD cc: Exis Inc ================================================================ COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 : Exis Inc, Jeff Woods Post Office Box 130 West Hill, ON FAXED TO:010-1-416-289-4645 CANADA 15 January 1992 M1E 4R4 Dear Jeff Re: Telix We still haven't had any reply from ELSA yet - we're really getting pretty disgruntled now, but hopefully work is progressing well on version 4.0 of Telix..... On the basis that v4 is more than 90 days from announcement, may we order another 60 Telix manuals, please? We assume you'll ship 6 to a carton and debit my Visa card as before.... Copy of ELSA fax: "ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D5100 Aachen FAXED TO:010-49-241-917 7600 GERMANY 14 January 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix I really must insist that you now send us some form of reply today to at least some of the points I addressed to you last year. I have now faxed you thrice (on 19 & 23 December 1991 and 9 January 1992) without any form of reply whatever! Those faxes were as follows: "What follows is based on the assumption that your company currently holds all the European rights to Telix 3.x: Currently in Ireland there is a requirement for a Minitel program. The Irish have just introduced a new system which we understand is to the same specification as the French Minitel. We are currently writing a Minitel `add- on' to Telix. We would then anticipate selling this `Minitel Telix' (named provisionally) at °36 instead of the °20 we currently charge for Telix alone. We wish to start marketing the program on January 6, 1992. What is your attitude? The main obstacle to success for Telix in the British market has been the lack of a Prestel emulation (which, you will appreciate, is rather different from Bildschirmtext standard). Do you have such an emulation for Telix or alternatively, what is your attitude to us writing one? Currently people are not clear on whether Telix is or is not shareable within Europe. We would like to take the attitude that the Canadian current shareable version of Telix may be used in Europe only within the terms of the license contained within its own documentation. That would mean that Shareware `Vendors' need to obtain written permission before they are allowed to distribute it. We propose that, within Europe, any such distribution requests from English Language Libraries or Vendors are routed through ourselves for approval/disapproval. We propose that we give permission to only a very few of the more reputable vendors and then only for 3 months at a time and take action against anyone else distributing old copies (which do not bear your or our registration address) without such permission. Recently we experienced difficulties in ordering another tranche of Telix 3.15gb labels. I know that Elsa has now grown to a very significant size, so would you be kind enough to give me the name or names and telephone numbers of the people within your organisation that we should talk to when we wish to order?" At least I now know from my statement that you debited my VISA card 4508 9760 2157 0015 Expires 04/92 in the name Dr G. Collins for the last tranche of Labels..... Sincerely yours for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD cc: Exis Inc" Sincerely yours for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD =================================================================== Exis Inc. Post Office Box 130, West Hill, ON M1E 4R4 CANADA (416)-289-4641 (416)-289-4645 fax fax cover page Date: January 16, 1992 To: George Collins Company: Intershop/CompuCom Europe Fax: +44/ 41-2045026 From: Colin Sampaleanu Pages following: 0 If you did not receive all of the pages completely, please notify us immediately at (416)-289-4645 (fax) or (416)-289-4641 (tel). Dear George, Sorry about the delay in this reply; I was on vacation last week... This is to let you know that I sent a fax to ELSA today to see what's up regarding letters that have not received replies... Regards, Colin (signature) =================================================================== COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 : Exis Inc, Colin Sampaleaunu Post Office Box 130 West Hill, ON FAXED TO:010-1-416-289-4645 CANADA 16 January 1992 M1E 4R4 Dear Colin Re: Has ELSA died; Order for Manuals Thanks for trying to wake ELSA up - still no signs of life there - maybe they're having a reaaaaaaaaaaally long vacation..... Can I assume you'll be sending the manuals off to us fairly shortly? Hope you enjoyed your vacation - I spent mine mostly sitting on my bum (and other more sensitive parts) in the Czech snow.... All the best! =================================================================== COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D5100 Aachen FAXED TO:010-49-241-917 7600 GERMANY 6 February 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix Thankyou for your faxed reply to my faxes of 9 & 14 January 1992, 19 & 23 December 1991, received today. I hope that you greatly enjoyed your vacation - I'm spending a week in the Outer Hebrides next week. I think we have now probably `missed the boat' on the Irish Minitel. If this is not the case, we will certainly send you a copy of any Minitel `add-on' to Telix. We are disappointed that you do not agree with our proposal that, within Europe, distribution requests from English language Shareware Libraries or Vendors are routed through ourselves for approval/disapproval. Effective policing/publicity often requires much shorter response times than your reply of todays' date to strategic questions that arose six weeks ago. This will inevitably mean that we take more of a reactive and less of a pro-active attitude to Telix. Thankyou for giving me the names and telephone numbers of the people within your organisation that we should talk to when we wish to order. With your assumed permission, we will send a review copy of the registered version of Telix (3.15GB) free of charge to:Simon Collins, PC Magazine, Ziff- Davis (UK) Ltd, Cottons Centre, Hays Lane, LONDON SE1 2QT for a review planned to be published on April 20th 1992 Sincerely yours for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD cc: Exis Inc ================================================================= COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D5100 Aachen FAXED TO:010-49-241-917 7600 GERMANY 5 March 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix: Your companys' inability to respond to orders Previously you gave me the names and telephone numbers of the people within your organisation that we should talk to when we wish to order. They have still not responded to 3 successive faxes: ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Martina Faber or Robert Schmitz Sonnenweg 11 D5100 Aachen FAXED TO:010-49-241-917 7600 GERMANY 5 March 1992 05-03-92 08:43:45 Dear Sirs Re: Telix Order IS THERE ANYONE ALIVE THERE? On 4 March 1992 we sent you the following fax: "On 28 February 1992 we sent you the following fax: Please may we order another tranche of Telix 3.15gb labels. Since you have been in the habit of producing them on sheets containing 24 labels, our order is for 7 sheets = 168 labels @ DM12 each. Please would you debit my VISA card 4508 9760 2157 0015 Expires 04/92 in the name Dr G. Collins Compucom Europe Ltd and dispatch to us today if possible. [If you would prefer, you may obtain authorisation only (so that you are assured of payment) and we will wire transfer the Deutschemark] Please would you ensure that the labels are dispatched in a small (A5?) hard backed envelope and sent `Eilzustellung' to the correct address as above (The last lot of labels arrived damaged and late because they had been placed in a padded bag and sent to our old Dixon Street address) Please would you confirm (preferably IN THE NEXT HOUR) what the current position is regarding this order?" PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE would you respond URGENTLY!!!!! Thankyou! If we have received no reply from you by 16:30 hrs GMT this afternoon we will be forced to dispatch 50 registered copies of Telix with our own labels rather than explain to our customer that your firm is not responding. In that case we will advise you accordingly so that you may deduct the appropriate quantity of labels from those you subsequently supply. Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD cc: Exis Inc ============================================================ COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Martina Ropertz-Faber Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen GERMANY 9 March 1992 Dear Martina Re: Telix: Streamlining Delivery Thank you for sending another tranche of Telix 3.15gb labels, which arrived today. We must get some agreement on the following points if we are not to waste each others time on something that should, by now, be routine and easy: 1) Please would you ensure that labels are dispatched in a small (A5?) hard backed envelope. (This lot of labels arrived damaged because they had been placed in a padded bag) 2) Please would you ensure that labels are sent `Eilzustellung' as a normal letter or `Brief'. Do not stick `Lieferschein' or `Ruckscheinkarte' or `AET' forms on the outside - these just delay the package and expose it to the risk of robbery. In other words, it should look as much like an ordinary Express letter as possible. (Diamonds are just sent in the normal post - statistically safer than sending by registered or insured post. We have our own insurance policy that covers up to °25,000 per shipment. Remember that the labels have no intrinsic value. What you are really selling is a licence to use Telix and if the labels are ever lost it should be very easy for you to just print another lot since you keep a record of the serial numbers.) 3) Don't use the Germanic form of addressing - it is incorrect according to International Postal Union regulations and delays receipt. The correct form is as follows. Please follow it word for word with no additions or omissions and with the same spacing and capitalization: Compucom Europe Ltd Top Floor Right 136 Holland Street GLASGOW Schottland G2 4NB PLEASE NOTE THAT ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SHOULD FOLLOW THE LAST LINE - THE POSTCODE! 4) Enclose in the letter our copy of the VISA voucher if we are paying by credit card. 5) Advise us by Fax to +44 41 204 5026 on the day you receive our order - and preferably, when you intend to dispatch it. 6) Advise us by Fax to +44 41 204 5026 of the dispatch of the letter containing the Telix labels on the day you post it. To close, may I raise some additional points: It was agreed that we would sell Telix at °20 and you would charge us °12. (For retail software and modems, you must bear in mind that we normally get between 45 and 55% discount). We agree that you may round this up to 35DM at current rates of exchange but not to 36DM. If you follow the advice above, postal delivery should not cost you more than 10DM - and we therefore think that you should bear the costs - as long as the order value comes to more than 3000DM. Your invoice shows an amount of DM 6065.80. This is wrong. It should be 168*°12 or 168*DM35. If we take the higher figure then the amount should be DM 5880. If you have debited a higher amount already from our VISA card, then this was unauthorised, so please complete a refund voucher and send us a copy of the original debit voucher plus a copy of the refund. If you are still awaiting payment then advise us. Either way we need to hear from you! Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD cc: Exis Inc ==================================================================== COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Eva Hompesch Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen GERMANY 14 March 1992 Dear Eva Thankyou for your letter dated 10.03.92 including my copy of a VISA voucher, received today. I really am getting fed-up of you people at ELSA ignoring my letters/faxes. If I have not had a satisfactory response to this letter by 25 March 1992 I shall register a dispute with VISA over the amount of DM6065.80 you debited my card with on 10/03/92. On 9 March 1992 I faxed Martina Ropertz-Faber as follows: "Re: Telix: Streamlining Delivery Thank you for sending another tranche of Telix 3.15gb labels, which arrived today. We must get some agreement on the following points if we are not to waste each others time on something that should, by now, be routine and easy: 1) Please would you ensure that labels are dispatched in a small (A5?) hard backed envelope. (This lot of labels arrived damaged because they had been placed in a padded bag) 2) Please would you ensure that labels are sent `Eilzustellung' as a normal letter or `Brief'. Do not stick `Lieferschein' or `Ruckscheinkarte' or `AET' forms on the outside - these just delay the package and expose it to the risk of robbery. In other words, it should look as much like an ordinary Express letter as possible. (Diamonds are just sent in the normal post - statistically safer than sending by registered or insured post. We have our own insurance policy that covers up to °25,000 per shipment. Remember that the labels have no intrinsic value. What you are really selling is a licence to use Telix and if the labels are ever lost it should be very easy for you to just print another lot since you keep a record of the serial numbers.) 3) Don't use the Germanic form of addressing - it is incorrect according to International Postal Union regulations and delays receipt. The correct form is as follows. Please follow it word for word with no additions or omissions and with the same spacing and capitalization: Compucom Europe Ltd Top Floor Right 136 Holland Street GLASGOW Schottland G2 4NB PLEASE NOTE THAT ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SHOULD FOLLOW THE LAST LINE - THE POSTCODE! 4) Enclose in the letter our copy of the VISA voucher if we are paying by credit card. 5) Advise us by Fax to +44 41 204 5026 on the day you receive our order - and preferably, when you intend to dispatch it. 6) Advise us by Fax to +44 41 204 5026 of the dispatch of the letter containing the Telix labels on the day you post it. To close, may I raise some additional points: It was agreed that we would sell Telix at °20 and you would charge us °12. (For retail software and modems, you must bear in mind that we normally get between 45 and 55% discount). We agree that you may round this up to 35DM at current rates of exchange but not to 36DM. If you follow the advice above, postal delivery should not cost you more than 10DM - and we therefore think that you should bear the costs - as long as the order value comes to more than 3000DM. Your invoice shows an amount of DM 6065.80. This is wrong. It should be 168*°12 or 168*DM35. If we take the higher figure then the amount should be DM 5880. If you have debited a higher amount already from our VISA card, then this was unauthorised, so please complete a refund voucher and send us a copy of the original debit voucher plus a copy of the refund. If you are still awaiting payment then advise us. Either way we need to hear from you!" Why was this ignored? Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD ============================================================================ COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Eva Hompesch Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen GERMANY 13 April 1992 Dear Eva Re: Why don't you Reply? On 14 March 1992 I sent you the following letter: "Thankyou for your letter dated 10.03.92 including my copy of a VISA voucher, received today. I really am getting fed-up of you people at ELSA ignoring my letters/faxes. If I have not had a satisfactory response to this letter by 25 March 1992 I shall register a dispute with VISA over the amount of DM6065.80 you debited my card with on 10/03/92. On 9 March 1992 I faxed Martina Ropertz-Faber as follows: "Re: Telix: Streamlining Delivery Thank you for sending another tranche of Telix 3.15gb labels, which arrived today. We must get some agreement on the following points if we are not to waste each others time on something that should, by now, be routine and easy: 1) Please would you ensure that labels are dispatched in a small (A5?) hard backed envelope. (This lot of labels arrived damaged because they had been placed in a padded bag) 2) Please would you ensure that labels are sent `Eilzustellung' as a normal letter or `Brief'. Do not stick `Lieferschein' or `Ruckscheinkarte' or `AET' forms on the outside - these just delay the package and expose it to the risk of robbery. In other words, it should look as much like an ordinary Express letter as possible. (Diamonds are just sent in the normal post - statistically safer than sending by registered or insured post. We have our own insurance policy that covers up to °25,000 per shipment. Remember that the labels have no intrinsic value. What you are really selling is a licence to use Telix and if the labels are ever lost it should be very easy for you to just print another lot since you keep a record of the serial numbers.) 3) Don't use the Germanic form of addressing - it is incorrect according to International Postal Union regulations and delays receipt. The correct form is as follows. Please follow it word for word with no additions or omissions and with the same spacing and capitalization: Compucom Europe Ltd Top Floor Right 136 Holland Street GLASGOW Schottland G2 4NB PLEASE NOTE THAT ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SHOULD FOLLOW THE LAST LINE - THE POSTCODE! 4) Enclose in the letter our copy of the VISA voucher if we are paying by credit card. 5) Advise us by Fax to +44 41 204 5026 on the day you receive our order - and preferably, when you intend to dispatch it. 6) Advise us by Fax to +44 41 204 5026 of the dispatch of the letter containing the Telix labels on the day you post it. To close, may I raise some additional points: It was agreed that we would sell Telix at °20 and you would charge us °12. (For retail software and modems, you must bear in mind that we normally get between 45 and 55% discount). We agree that you may round this up to 35DM at current rates of exchange but not to 36DM. If you follow the advice above, postal delivery should not cost you more than 10DM - and we therefore think that you should bear the costs - as long as the order value comes to more than 3000DM. Your invoice shows an amount of DM 6065.80. This is wrong. It should be 168*°12 or 168*DM35. If we take the higher figure then the amount should be DM 5880. If you have debited a higher amount already from our VISA card, then this was unauthorised, so please complete a refund voucher and send us a copy of the original debit voucher plus a copy of the refund. If you are still awaiting payment then advise us. Either way we need to hear from you!" Why was this ignored?" Since I still have not had a satisfactory response I have today registered a dispute with VISA over the amount of DM6065.80 you debited my card with on 10/03/92. Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD ======================================================================== COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner ( or Eva Hompesch ) Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 8 May 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix Thankyou for your faxed letter dated 21 April 1992 in reply to mine of 14 March 1992 I have waited until now before replying because I wished to a) ascertain the release date for the next version of Telix and b) locate and listen to the archived recording of the original tripartite telephone agreement between ourselves and Colin. After listening to those tapes, I have to reiterate that what was agreed as our buy price for each registered Telix was twelve pounds sterling, split °6 and °6 between you and Colin. Subsequently Colin confirmed that he was entirely happy to have you collect `his' °6. Clearly, as a German company, you need to invoice in DM and the question therefore arises as to the exchange rate to be used. Sterling is currently pegged in the EMS in the range 2.773 to 2.950 DM to each pound. This equates to an invoice amount of 33.27DM to 35.40DM per copy of Telix. Although the median equates to 34.34DM, I would be happy to negotiate a price of 35DM per copy. We are not prepared to accept your unilateral price increase to 36DM, though. The pricing issue is trivial, though (although the principle of negotiating alterations to agreements is one we would hold valuable) compared to the issue of speed of response: As a service business, we cannot tolerate a situation where our supplier is unable to acknowledge our orders. Of course there may be times when you cannot print labels within 48 hours (although we wonder why....) but we must insist on some sort of reply within 72 hours so that we can advise our customers appropriately. Please, therefore, may we order another tranche of Telix 3.15gb labels. Since you have been in the habit of producing them on sheets containing 24 labels, our order is for 7 sheets = 168 labels @ DM35 each. Please would you debit my VISA card 4508 9760 2157 0023 Expires 04/93 in the name Dr G. Collins Compucom Europe Ltd 136 Holland Street GLASGOW G2 4NB and dispatch to us today, if possible, but in any event, before 10.00hrs 13 May 1992 [If you would prefer, you may obtain authorisation only (so that you are assured of payment) and we will wire transfer the Deutschemark] Please would you ensure that the labels are dispatched in a small (A5?) hard backed envelope (The last lot of labels arrived damaged and late because they had been placed in a padded bag). Please would you also ensure that the labels are sent `Eilzustellung' as a normal letter or `Brief'. Do not stick `Lieferschein' or `Ruckscheinkarte' or `AET' forms on the outside - these just delay the package and expose it to the risk of robbery. In other words, it should look as much like an ordinary Express letter as possible. (Diamonds are just sent in the normal post - statistically safer than sending by registered or insured post. We have our own insurance policy that covers up to °25,000 per shipment. Remember that the labels have no intrinsic value. What you are really selling is a licence to use Telix and if the labels are ever lost it should be very easy for you to just print another lot since you keep a record of the serial numbers.) Please don't use the Germanic form of addressing - it is incorrect according to International Postal Union regulations and delays receipt. The correct form is as follows. Please follow it word for word with no additions or omissions and with the same spacing and capitalization: Compucom Europe Ltd Top Floor Right 136 Holland Street GLASGOW Schottland G2 4NB PLEASE NOTE THAT ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SHOULD FOLLOW THE LAST LINE - THE POSTCODE! Please enclose in the letter our copy of the VISA voucher if we are paying by credit card. Please advise us by Fax to +44 41 204 5026 on the day you receive our orders - and preferably, when you intend to dispatch them. Please advise us by Fax to +44 41 204 5026 of the dispatch of the letter containing the Telix labels on the day you post it. Please would you confirm (preferably IN THE NEXT HOUR - but in any event before 10.00hrs 13 May 1992 ) that you have received this order and the estimated date of dispatch? If we have received no reply from you by 10:30 hrs GMT 13 May 1992 we will print the labels ourselves using a sequential numbering system and send you °12 for each registered Telix3.15GB we produce rather than attempt to explain to our customers that your firm is not responding. Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD cc: Exis Inc ============================================================ COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Eva Hompesch ( or Dr Klaus Langner ) Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 16:22hrs 13 May 1992 Dear Eva Re: Telix: Your Late Reply Thankyou for your faxed letter dated today in reply to mine of 8 May 1992 Since we faxed you the letter dated 8 May 1992 on 8 May 1992 I do not see why you needed to wait to receive the original letter by snail post before telling us Dr Langner is away. Since we did not receive any form of reply from you before 10:30 hrs GMT 13 May 1992, we printed the labels ourselves using a sequential numbering system and will send you °12 for each registered Telix3.15GB we produced rather than attempt to explain to our customers that your firm is not responding. I hope that Dr Langner will be able to respond to the other points in my letter of 8 May 1992 immediately upon his return.... Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD ================================================================ COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner (or Eva Hompesch) Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 18:08hrs 19 May 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix: Your Late Replies Please find enclosed our cheque 000592 in the amount of °1800 in respect of 150 registered copies of Telix 3.15gb bearing our serial numbers 1-150 inclusive. I also enclose a sample of the design of label we have used. We would be grateful if you could supply an invoice for this transaction at your earliest convenience. (If this causes you any difficulty, just 'phone us and we will deal with the expenditure another way). We appreciate that a sterling cheque may involve you in bank charges and will therefore assume that you wish us to send you payment in tranches of 150 labels in future - unless we agree a different procedure. Thankyou for your faxed reply dated today to some of the points we raised with you on 8 May 1992. I propose to deal with your last points first. I shall try and use plain (if rather Anglo-Saxon) words since I am conscious that english is not your mother tongue. Please note that my intention is to be clear - not rude: All current orders for you to produce labels for us are hereby cancelled. Furthermore you do not have my permission to use my credit card number for any purpose whatsoever - unless this is explicitly agreed after todays date. The legal basis for our distributing Telix is simple and straightforward under Scots Law: Exis Inc holds the Copyright to Telix and assigned all European rights to your company. Last year in a tripartite 'phone conversation between yourself, myself and Colin Sampaleaunu of Exis Inc it was agreed without limit of time that we would act as a registration point for english language versions of Telix here in Europe. (The pre-amble to this discussion was that, previous to this agreement, Telix was being treated as Freeware because of your companies lack of registration profile in the english language market here in Europe. It was agreed that the extra revenue that we would bring in would involve you in minimal work since we would produce the disks ourselves.) It was agreed that we would pay °6 to Exis Inc and °6 to ELSA GmbH for each registration @ °20 that we accepted. We were quite happy for you to collect Exis Inc's `share' and invoice us DM35 until you a) unilaterally changed the price b) stopped replying to our communications within a reasonable time-frame We have never asked you to produce Telix labels inside 24 hours - we have asked for some sort of reply within 72 hours so that we can advise our customers appropriately. As a service business, we cannot tolerate a situation where our supplier is unable to acknowledge our orders. Of course there may be times when you cannot print labels within 48 hours (although we wonder why....) but we must insist on some form of acknowledgement. I have previously lived in Germany and know that it is normal business practice to acknowledge an order within 48 hours if there will be a delay in fulfilment. When you speak of `lead times' I think you forget that you're not manufacturing modems - you're printing labels on a laser printer and then pushing them into an envelope - hardly the most demanding production schedule! Currently all three of us are losing a great deal of money because of your slowness of response. We lost a great opportunity in Ireland with the Minitel fiasco. Even more money is being lost because you refuse to allow us to actively promote Telix with press releases and police the many shareware libraries that are distributing Telix without permission. This means that when the next (retail) version of Telix is launched there is likely to be considerable confusion and loss of retail sales. In short I think there are now three realistic choices: 1) We fight each other in court (we're happy we'd win!) 2) We renegotiate the agreement (if you wish to increase your price and introduce all this germanic bureaucracy.) 3) We stick to the original agreement (and continue to send you °12 for each copy of Telix we register. If you don't wish to collect Exis Inc's °6, simply tell us and we'll pay them directly...) I suggest we talk..... Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD PS: I'm surprised you've never wanted to do any modem business with us. We import more than 400 modems a month for the UK market. In two months we'll commence a direct sales operation in Germany, Austria and Switzerland now that the European Commission has ruled on European harmonisation of PTT approvals.... ================================================================== COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner (or Eva Hompesch) Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 19:53hrs 19 May 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix: Let's Talk Thanks for your fax received two minutes ago. It's clear that you haven't understood us/received some of our communications. I absolutely agree that business is business - 'phone me now on 00 44 41 204 4310 and we'll sort it out in five minutes.... Sincerely yours George Collins cc: Exis Inc ================================================================= COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner (or Eva Hompesch) Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen NOT Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 16 July 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix: Your Non Reply Please find enclosed our cheque 000643 in the amount of °1800 in respect of 150 registered copies of Telix 3.15gb bearing our serial numbers 151-300 inclusive. I also enclose a sample of the design of label we have used. We are disappointed that you have not been able to reply to my letter faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 at 19:53hrs 19 May 1992 ["Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix: Let's Talk Thanks for your fax received two minutes ago. It's clear that you haven't understood us/received some of our communications. I absolutely agree that business is business - 'phone me now on 00 44 41 204 4310 and we'll sort it out in five minutes....]" nor to our letter of 19 May 1992 ["Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix: Your Late Replies Please find enclosed our cheque 000592 in the amount of °1800 in respect of 150 registered copies of Telix 3.15gb bearing our serial numbers 1-150 inclusive. I also enclose a sample of the design of label we have used. We would be grateful if you could supply an invoice for this transaction at your earliest convenience. (If this causes you any difficulty, just 'phone us and we will deal with the expenditure another way). We appreciate that a sterling cheque may involve you in bank charges and will therefore assume that you wish us to send you payment in tranches of 150 labels in future - unless we agree a different procedure. Thankyou for your faxed reply dated today to some of the points we raised with you on 8 May 1992. I propose to deal with your last points first. I shall try and use plain (if rather Anglo-Saxon) words since I am conscious that english is not your mother tongue. Please note that my intention is to be clear - not rude: All current orders for you to produce labels for us are hereby cancelled. Furthermore you do not have my permission to use my credit card number for any purpose whatsoever - unless this is explicitly agreed after todays date. The legal basis for our distributing Telix is simple and straightforward under Scots Law: Exis Inc holds the Copyright to Telix and assigned all European rights to your company. Last year in a tripartite 'phone conversation between yourself, myself and Colin Sampaleaunu of Exis Inc it was agreed without limit of time that we would act as a registration point for english language versions of Telix here in Europe. (The pre-amble to this discussion was that, previous to this agreement, Telix was being treated as Freeware because of your companies lack of registration profile in the english language market here in Europe. It was agreed that the extra revenue that we would bring in would involve you in minimal work since we would produce the disks ourselves.) It was agreed that we would pay °6 to Exis Inc and °6 to ELSA GmbH for each registration @ °20 that we accepted. We were quite happy for you to collect Exis Inc's `share' and invoice us DM35 until you a) unilaterally changed the price b) stopped replying to our communications within a reasonable time-frame We have never asked you to produce Telix labels inside 24 hours - we have asked for some sort of reply within 72 hours so that we can advise our customers appropriately. As a service business, we cannot tolerate a situation where our supplier is unable to acknowledge our orders. Of course there may be times when you cannot print labels within 48 hours (although we wonder why....) but we must insist on some form of acknowledgement. I have previously lived in Germany and know that it is normal business practice to acknowledge an order within 48 hours if there will be a delay in fulfilment. When you speak of `lead times' I think you forget that you're not manufacturing modems - you're printing labels on a laser printer and then pushing them into an envelope - hardly the most demanding production schedule! Currently all three of us are losing a great deal of money because of your slowness of response. We lost a great opportunity in Ireland with the Minitel fiasco. Even more money is being lost because you refuse to allow us to actively promote Telix with press releases and police the many shareware libraries that are distributing Telix without permission. This means that when the next (retail) version of Telix is launched there is likely to be considerable confusion and loss of retail sales. In short I think there are now three realistic choices: 1) We fight each other in court (we're happy we'd win!) 2) We renegotiate the agreement (if you wish to increase your price and introduce all this germanic bureaucracy.) 3) We stick to the original agreement (and continue to send you °12 for each copy of Telix we register. If you don't wish to collect Exis Inc's °6, simply tell us and we'll pay them directly...) I suggest we talk..... Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD PS: I'm surprised you've never wanted to do any modem business with us. We import more than 400 modems a month for the UK market. In two months we'll commence a direct sales operation in Germany, Austria and Switzerland now that the European Commission has ruled on European harmonisation of PTT approvals.... cc: Exis Inc"] We know that you received the letter because the cheque was presented to our bank account.... Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD ====================================================================== COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner (or Eva Hompesch) Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen NOT Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 19 August 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix: Your Non Reply Please find enclosed our cheque 000665 in the amount of °1800 in respect of 150 registered copies of Telix 3.15gb bearing our serial numbers 301-450 inclusive. I also enclose a sample of the design of label we have used. We are disappointed that you have not been able to reply either to my last letter dated 16 July 1992 (enclosing cheque 000643 which you cashed) nor to my letter faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 at 19:53hrs 19 May 1992 ["Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix: Let's Talk Thanks for your fax received two minutes ago. It's clear that you haven't understood us/received some of our communications. I absolutely agree that business is business - 'phone me now on 00 44 41 204 4310 and we'll sort it out in five minutes....]" nor to our letter of 19 May 1992 ["Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix: Your Late Replies Please find enclosed our cheque 000592 in the amount of °1800 in respect of 150 registered copies of Telix 3.15gb bearing our serial numbers 1-150 inclusive. I also enclose a sample of the design of label we have used. We would be grateful if you could supply an invoice for this transaction at your earliest convenience. (If this causes you any difficulty, just 'phone us and we will deal with the expenditure another way). We appreciate that a sterling cheque may involve you in bank charges and will therefore assume that you wish us to send you payment in tranches of 150 labels in future - unless we agree a different procedure. Thankyou for your faxed reply dated today to some of the points we raised with you on 8 May 1992. I propose to deal with your last points first. I shall try and use plain (if rather Anglo-Saxon) words since I am conscious that english is not your mother tongue. Please note that my intention is to be clear - not rude: All current orders for you to produce labels for us are hereby cancelled. Furthermore you do not have my permission to use my credit card number for any purpose whatsoever - unless this is explicitly agreed after todays date. The legal basis for our distributing Telix is simple and straightforward under Scots Law: Exis Inc holds the Copyright to Telix and assigned all European rights to your company. Last year in a tripartite 'phone conversation between yourself, myself and Colin Sampaleaunu of Exis Inc it was agreed without limit of time that we would act as a registration point for english language versions of Telix here in Europe. (The pre-amble to this discussion was that, previous to this agreement, Telix was being treated as Freeware because of your companies lack of registration profile in the english language market here in Europe. It was agreed that the extra revenue that we would bring in would involve you in minimal work since we would produce the disks ourselves.) It was agreed that we would pay °6 to Exis Inc and °6 to ELSA GmbH for each registration @ °20 that we accepted. We were quite happy for you to collect Exis Inc's `share' and invoice us DM35 until you a) unilaterally changed the price b) stopped replying to our communications within a reasonable time-frame We have never asked you to produce Telix labels inside 24 hours - we have asked for some sort of reply within 72 hours so that we can advise our customers appropriately. As a service business, we cannot tolerate a situation where our supplier is unable to acknowledge our orders. Of course there may be times when you cannot print labels within 48 hours (although we wonder why....) but we must insist on some form of acknowledgement. I have previously lived in Germany and know that it is normal business practice to acknowledge an order within 48 hours if there will be a delay in fulfilment. When you speak of `lead times' I think you forget that you're not manufacturing modems - you're printing labels on a laser printer and then pushing them into an envelope - hardly the most demanding production schedule! Currently all three of us are losing a great deal of money because of your slowness of response. We lost a great opportunity in Ireland with the Minitel fiasco. Even more money is being lost because you refuse to allow us to actively promote Telix with press releases and police the many shareware libraries that are distributing Telix without permission. This means that when the next (retail) version of Telix is launched there is likely to be considerable confusion and loss of retail sales. In short I think there are now three realistic choices: 1) We fight each other in court (we're happy we'd win!) 2) We renegotiate the agreement (if you wish to increase your price and introduce all this germanic bureaucracy.) 3) We stick to the original agreement (and continue to send you °12 for each copy of Telix we register. If you don't wish to collect Exis Inc's °6, simply tell us and we'll pay them directly...) I suggest we talk..... Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD PS: I'm surprised you've never wanted to do any modem business with us. We import more than 400 modems a month for the UK market. In two months we'll commence a direct sales operation in Germany, Austria and Switzerland now that the European Commission has ruled on European harmonisation of PTT approvals.... cc: Exis Inc"] We know that you received that letter because the cheque was also presented to our bank account.... Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD ================================================================= COMPUcom EUROPE LTD Registered in Cardiff:2588174 Registered Office: 3 Devonshire Street, Carlisle CA3 8LG VAT Number: 596 5183 93 ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner (or Eva Hompesch) Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 4 September 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix Thankyou for your fax of todays date. I will try and deal with the points you raised in order: The legal basis for our distributing Telix is simple and straightforward under Scots Law: Exis Inc holds the Copyright to Telix and assigned all European rights to your company. Last year in a tripartite 'phone conversation between yourself, myself and Colin Sampaleaunu of Exis Inc it was agreed without limit of time that we would act as a registration point for english language versions of Telix here in Europe. (The pre-amble to this discussion was that, previous to this agreement, Telix was being treated as Freeware because of your companies lack of registration profile in the english language market here in Europe. I must add that we estimate our joint revenues from Telix as being ONE TENTH what they should be if we were given permission to actively police and promote the distribution of the Shareware version in Britain! It was agreed that the extra revenue that we would bring in would involve you in minimal work since we would produce the disks ourselves.) It was agreed that we would pay °6 to Exis Inc and °6 to ELSA GmbH for each registration @ °20 that we accepted. I believe you are wrong in saying that I did not reply to your fax of 19 May; may I quote some excerpts from the letter faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 @ 18:08hrs 19 May 1992: "Please find enclosed our cheque 000592 in the amount of °1800 in respect of 150 registered copies of Telix 3.15gb bearing our serial numbers 1-150 inclusive. I also enclose a sample of the design of label we have used. We would be grateful if you could supply an invoice for this transaction at your earliest convenience. (If this causes you any difficulty, just 'phone us and we will deal with the expenditure another way). We appreciate that a sterling cheque may involve you in bank charges and will therefore assume that you wish us to send you payment in tranches of 150 labels in future - unless we agree a different procedure. Thankyou for your faxed reply dated today to some of the points we raised with you on 8 May 1992. I propose to deal with your last points first. I shall try and use plain (if rather Anglo- Saxon) words since I am conscious that english is not your mother tongue. Please note that my intention is to be clear - not rude: All current orders for you to produce labels for us are hereby cancelled. Furthermore you do not have my permission to use my credit card number for any purpose whatsoever - unless this is explicitly agreed after todays date." I would also like to reproduce (in the same typestyle) what I faxed to 010- 49-241-9177600 @ 19:53hrs 19 May 1992: "Re: Telix: Let's Talk Thanks for your fax received two minutes ago. It's clear that you haven't understood us/received some of our communications. I absolutely agree that business is business - 'phone me now on 00 44 41 204 4310 and we'll sort it out in five minutes...." I believe that the content of that Fax holds good. Since I can't get through to you on the 'phone, why not 'phone me (reverse the charges if you like) and we'll get on with the business of seriously promoting Telix. You are entirely and utterly wrong in insinuating that we have issued labels without Serial Numbers. Each and every Telix label has been numbered sequentially. The series began with 1 and currently stands at 472. If there is another sequence that you would like us to use, then please advise... I will now renew my efforts to contact Colin Sampaleaunu and try and get this whole matter put on a business-like footing. I would suggest that we meet at Comdex in Las Vegas 17 November 1992, but I am also willing to meet with you in Germany (or anywhere else). Since you have now cashed three successive cheques in the amount of °1800 totalling °5400 in full payment for serial numbers 1-450 inclusive, I really think that we should agree future production and promotion! I suggest we talk..... Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD cc: Exis Inc ================================================================ ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner (or Eva Hompesch) Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 30 November 1992 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix Thank you for your fax dated 13 November 1992; my staff left me to deal with this upon my return today from USA. I believe that I have already dealt with these matters in my letter of 4 September 1992; I simply do not accept that we are distributing Telix without authorisation. The legal basis for our distributing Telix is simple and straightforward under Scots Law: Exis Inc held the Copyright to Telix and assigned all European rights to your company. Last year in a tripartite 'phone conversation between yourself, myself and Colin Sampaleaunu of Exis Inc it was agreed without limit of time that we would act as a registration point for english language versions of Telix 3.x here in Europe. (The pre-amble to this discussion was that, previous to this agreement, Telix was being treated as Freeware because of your companies lack of registration profile in the english language market here in Europe. I must add that we still estimate our joint revenues from Telix as being ONE TENTH what they should be if we were given permission to actively police and promote the distribution of the Shareware version in Britain! It was agreed that the extra revenue that we would bring in would involve you in minimal work since we would produce the disks ourselves.) It was agreed that we would pay °6 to Exis Inc and °6 to ELSA GmbH for each registration @ °20 that we accepted. Please find enclosed COMPUCOM EUROPE LTD's cheque 000592 in the amount of °1800 in respect of 150 registered copies of Telix 3.15gb bearing our serial numbers 451-600 inclusive. We would be grateful if you could supply an invoice for this and the three previous transactions at your earliest convenience. (If this causes you any difficulty, just 'phone us and we will deal with the expenditure another way). We appreciate that a sterling cheque may involve you in bank charges and will therefore continue to assume that you wish us to send you payment in tranches of 150 labels - unless we agree a different procedure. Thank you for notifying us of the new arrangements for distributing German language versions; we will refer these enquiries to CONNECT GmbH in Hamburg. I am sorry you did not agree to meet me at Comdex in Las Vegas on 17 November 1992; I remain willing to meet with you in Germany (or anywhere else) to agree future production and promotion! Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd cc: Exis Inc deltaComm Development ==================================================================== ELSA Gmbh Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Achen Compucom Europe Ltd att. Dr. Collins FAX 0044 41 204 5026 Your message of 30.11.92 Our Reference kl/hs Date 25.01.93 Telix Dear Dr. Collins, Thank you for your fax, dated 30.11.92, which we received 04.01.93. I have been on a bussiness trip and could not respond earlier. Let me point out again that we had an agreement which enabled you to purchase Telix labels from us or any of our resellers. You and your company do not have, nor did you ever have an authorization to produce your own labels. Per my fax, as 13.11.92 you have been asked to confirm that you will refrain from printing any more unauthorized labels. I do not detect any such confirmation in your recent fax. By reveiling this attitude, you are forcing us to state clearly: If deltaComm or ELSA get proof of the fact that you release any fake Telix labels beyond your serial number 600, both our companies will undertake legal actions to the full extent in result of this severe case of violating international copyright laws. There was no word in my fax that CONNECT GmbH deals with German version of Telix only; they also provide your source for labels as we have transferred your customer account to them. Due to a very tough time schedule, I was unable to make an appointment with you at Comdex. Feel free to visit our booth at Cebit in Hannover. Regards, ELSA GmbH Dr. Klaus Langner ==================================================================== ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 29 January 1993 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix Thank you for your fax dated 25 January 1993 addressed to Compucom Europe Ltd on fax number 041-204 5026 I have to inform you that Compucom Europe Ltd was sold (lock, stock and barrel) on 31 December 1992 to Jan Novakova and Eva Novakova. They have removed the company to: 212 Bath Street GLASGOW G2 4HW ('phone 041-353 0800, fax:041-353 2877) Compucom Europe Ltd have receipted cashed cheques to show that Elsa GmbH were paid the sum of °7200 for labels 001 - 600 inclusive together with a copy of the original tape recording indicating the legal basis for their distributing Telix: Exis Inc held the Copyright to Telix and assigned all European rights to your company. In 1991 in a tripartite 'phone conversation between yourself, myself and Colin Sampaleaunu of Exis Inc it was agreed without limit of time that there would be a registration point for english language versions of Telix 3.x here in Europe. (The pre-amble to this discussion was that, previous to this agreement, Telix was being treated as Freeware because of your companies lack of registration profile in the english language market here in Europe. I must add that we still estimate our joint revenues from Telix as being ONE TENTH what they should be if I were given permission to actively police and promote the distribution of the Shareware version in Britain! It was agreed that the extra revenue that we would bring in would involve you in minimal work since we would produce the disks ourselves.) It was agreed that °6 would be paid to Exis Inc and °6 to ELSA GmbH for each registration @ °20 that was accepted. Compucom Europe Ltd will not be accepting any further registrations for Telix now that I have left the Company. * I personally believe that we should take the opportunity with my new company to begin afresh. I would still like to deliver to both you and deltaComm Development incremental quantities of cash by actively promoting Telix. I believe the true alternatives are 1) To do nothing so that Europe remains a relatively dead area for Telix 2) You make SpeedModem Ltd rich by unsuccessfully attempting to sue us. 3) I meet with you in Germany (or anywhere else) to agree future production and promotion! 4) You let Jeff Woods handle things and he passes to you your revenues. Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd cc: deltaComm Development ============================================================== ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 2 February 1993 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix Thanks you for your fax dated 01 February 1993: please send me your convenient dates and I'll visit and try and sort everything out. [We don't use the `facility and address of Compucom' - we bought their building and 'phone system.] Jeff Woods has made clear to me the sensitivity of the label issue - so obviously we won't print any more (Compucom Europe Ltd got all the labels: 1 through 820) until we can clarify the position - the only reason we started in the first place was 'cos our customers were climbing the walls when we couldn't tell them a delivery date. Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd cc: deltaComm Development PS: Jan has told me he'll pay you directly for labels 601 through 820 ====================================================================== ELSA Gesellschaft f│r elektronische Systeme mbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 4 February 1993 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix Thanks you for your fax dated 03 February 1993: Thomas was kind enough to 'phone me this afternoon and I have the feeling that we will be able to work very smoothly together. I do hope that we can all get together shortly and discuss the active marketing of Telix in our market. I hope that the enclosed copy of my letter to him meets with your approval. I wish you an enjoyable and profitable trip to the US! Sincerely yours Dr George Collins for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd ======================================================================= [we have not reproduced copies of corespondence between Connect GmbH of Hamburg since they are relatively blameless] ======================================================================= deltaComm Development Jeff Woods PO Box 1185 Voice: 010-1-919-460-4556 Cary NC 27512 Faxed to:010-1-919-460-4531 USA 14 April 1993 Dear Jeff RE: Order for Telix Manuals Thanks for faxing the extended invoice for the last shipment of Telix manuals. I gather from reading the echoes that you have now received a new batch of 3.21 manuals from the printers. How much are you charging for 50 or so manuals? (There isn't yet an English version of the manual for Telix 3.21 available from ELSA and their distributor, Thomas Schewe of CONNECT Communications GmbH & Co. KG, Alsterdorferstr. 201, D-2000 HAMBURG 60, GERMANY, (Fax +49-40- 5117074), suggests that we either print our own or buy from you. Bearing in mind that there will be a new version of Telix in August 1993, we obviously prefer the latter option...) Sincerely yours for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd Dr George Collins ==================================================================== deltaComm Development Jeff Woods PO Box 1185 Voice: 010-1-919-460-4556 Cary NC 27512 Faxed to:010-1-919-460-4531 USA 14 April 1993 Dear Jeff RE: Our VAT problems: Commercial Invoice Thanks for faxing the extended invoice for the last but one shipment of Telix manuals. Unfortunately it does not seem to have done the job! Could I trouble you to read the accompanying self-explanatory letter received from FedEx today and ask you to fax to us on +44 41 204 5026 what they're asking for? I hope things are good with you and look forward to seeing the new software demonstrated in August. Sincerely yours for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd Dr George Collins PS: We seem to be unable to obtain the int.14 Network version of Telix from either Connect or ELSA. Are you able to supply this and if so at what pricing? ===================================================================== deltaComm Development Jeff Woods PO Box 1185 Voice: 010-1-919-460-4556 Cary NC 27512 Faxed to:010-1-919-460-4531 USA 14 April 1993 Dear Jeff RE: Our VAT problems: Thanks a lot for being so prompt in responding to my fax earlier today, I know it's a real pain in the butt, but you know what bureaucrats are like... One of the difficulties we have is that we are not dealing directly with the customs but via FedEx. I'm sending FedEx copies of this exchange of correspondence today and I hope this is the last time we have to trouble you... * Any news on network Telix? (our postscript was: "We seem to be unable to obtain the int.14 Network version of Telix from either Connect or ELSA. Are you able to supply this and if so at what pricing?") Sincerely yours for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd Dr George Collins ==================================================================== deltaComm Development fao Jeff Woods / Senior Management PO Box 1185 Voice: 010-1-919-460-4556 Cary NC 27512 Faxed to:010-1-919-460-4531 USA 16 October 1993 Dear Sirs RE: URGENT: Our Relationship I have just been told something by George Collins that deeply disturbs us: He says that when he telephoned deltaComm to check on progress of a credit card order (placed on our behalf for 28 manuals and 10 INT14 versions of telix some weeks ago) he was passed between three different employees before being told by Zack that there were instructions not to deal with us and that Jeff Woods was unavailable for clarification. We have also just seen the following message: Date: 05-10-93 (18:29) Number: 7303 From: JEFF WOODS Refer#: NONE To: DAVID LAWSON Recvd: NO Subj: Telix to the World Conf: (7) TELIX --------------------------------------------------------------------------- DL> As you appear to be finally coming around to the idea of producing a Dos v4, could you say whether UK users will fall into the same trap DL>as earlier versions and be barred from ordering direct from you? Or will No, the licensing arrangement will not be exclusive next time around. However, the good news is: Connect GmbH has finally brought their prices in line with ours, at 79DM (all taxes included). This is roughly equivalent to our $39 price. Our former distributor in Great Britain was removed for various reasons which we will not go into at this time. Jeff Woods | CIS: 71035,2167 | Internet: Jeff.Woods@canrem.com deltaComm Dev. | Fido: 1:259/403 | Direct BBS: 919-481-9399 v.32bis * DeLuxe2/386 1.25 #171s * Q-Tip: Continuum Advice (for your ears only) --- Ч RoseMail 2.10А: ILink: CRS Online, Toronto, On. We urgently need to explain to customers who have paid for manuals. Please inform us comprehensively before 20:00hrs GMT 19 October 1993 by voice to +44 41 204 4310 or Fax +44 41 204 5026 what the current situation is with regards to Telix sales in Eire & the UK - together with the reasons for any proposed changes. [Although George is no longer either an employee or Officer of this company we continue to have a good working relationship with him and he is more familiar with the history of this product] Because of the thousands of copies of Telix we have sold I am afraid we will regard failure to reply timeously as the grossest rudeness / incompetence and respond appropriately and publicly. Sincerely yours for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd Karl Anton Schmidt, Managing Director ===================================================================== deltaComm Development,Inc. PO Box 1185, Cary, NC 27512 FAX COVER PAGE Date: October 18,1993 To: Karl Anton Schmidt Company: Speedmodem Ltd Fax: 041-353-1993 From: Jeff Woods If you did not receive all of the pages completely, please notify us immediately at (919)-460-4531 (fax) or (919)-460-4556 (tel). Dear Mr. Schmidt: I will be blunt as to our reasons--Dr, Collins made his own bed by appearing at BBSCON in Colorado Spring this past August wearing a nametag touting himself and Speedmodem Ltd. as the official publishers (not distributors, but publishers) of Terminate, a competing Dutch program. When confronted, he said in the presence of witnesses and potential customers that he believed it was a better program and that he would steer our potential customers to purchase that program instead. When the managing director of ELSA, GmbH (Dr. Klaus Langner, also present at this convention) heard this, he asked for permission to cut off Collins due to past reports of poor service, his inability to get along with ELSA, and this comment about Terminate which was the straw that broke the camel's back. Any dispute you have about being able to purchase Telix should be directed to ELSA's agent, Connect GmbH. They control copyright and distribution in Europe, not us. I only agreed with Klaus that in light of such attitude on the part of Dr. Collins that it was not in our best interests to continue to allow Dr. Collins to associate his name or company with our products, and gave Klaus my blessings to terminate the distributorship at his discretion, which he did in about two seconds of my blessing. Please contact Connect or ELSA for further details. For your own information, for future products we are also taking back control from ELSA, who will be allowed to purchase as a dealer but will not have exclusivity on those products -- Elsa is aware of this. Sincerely, Jeff Woods President ===================================================================== deltaComm Development Jeff Woods, President PO Box 1185 Voice: 010-1-919-460-4556 Cary NC 27512 Faxed to:010-1-919-460-4531 USA 19 October 1993 Dear Jeff RE: Telix Thanks for your fax dated 18 October 1993 in prompt reply to mine. If you have indeed been frank as to all your reasons then it seems clear that we should be able to sort this out quickly and amicably after you have 'phoned George to apologise. George formally ceased to be an employee of SpeedModem Ltd before he set foot in America. It is my understanding that he is currently VP Marketing for Almac BBS Ltd who, amongst other things distribute PCBoard here. I am afraid you are wrong when you say that he was wearing at ONE BBSCON in Colorado Springs August 25-29 "a nametag touting himself and Speedmodem (sic) Ltd as the official publishers (not distributors, but publishers) of Terminate, a competing Dutch (sic) program." I am also faxing to you the originals of the two nametags he wore at that conference. Since he was there as a representative of Almac BBS Ltd the badge he wore most of the conference read: "Dr. George Collins ALMAC: Europes Biggest BBS & Publisher of TERMINATE". George tells me that for reasons of courtesy and diplomacy he wore a different badge at meetings that were specific to terminal programs (including 33. Telix Communications, 27. RIPscrip, and your co-hosted event in the Lake Terrace Dining Room where you personally agreed that we could purchase the INT14 version of Telix directly from yourselves since it was not covered by the agreement with ELSA.) That badge read "Dr. George Collins SpeedModem Ltd. for TELIX in Eire and UK". Although my company have not previously sold Terminate (authored in Denmark by Bo Bendtsen) we reserve the right to sell any Datacomms product that is appropriate to the needs of our customers and clearly, if you renege on orders for the INT14 version of Telix, then Terminate may well be what our customers end up with! I would have thought that the way to compete against Terminate is to use us to publicise your products rather than keep us in the dark about all developments and disseminate poisonous half-truths in Fidonet public echos. We are not clear from your letter as to who "terminate(d) the distributorship" or when. What is clear is that nobody, neither from deltaComm, ELSA or Connect informed either my company or George about this fit of pique. Indeed, on the same day (15 October 1993) that Zack Jones was telling George that his two-week-old credit card order for manuals and INT14 versions would not be sent (George 'phoned Zack not the other way round!) my company received a fax from Thomas Schewe of CONNECT Communications GmbH & Co. KG asking us to transit seven thousand two hundred and forty Deutschemark into their a/c in advance payment for Telix labels. I think you need to separate in your own mind organisations and individuals. It is my understanding that when, in 1991 Colin Sampaleanu, Klaus Langner and George Collins made an agreement about Telix registration they were acting on behalf of their respective organisations Exis Inc, ELSA GmbH and INTERSTOP. I know that George can be bullheaded at times but he is NOT the registration point for Telix here. The agreement was with INTERSTOP and the public associates that name with Telix and not that of Dr Collins. I have confirmed with the General Secretary of INTERSTOP today that they wish us to continue to register Telix on their behalf and are in agreement that we should "go public" and release all correspondence if we can not put a stop to this childishness and institute a more adult, trusting and open relationship. If you view George as being PERSONALLY the Telix registration point then obviously it must be galling to see him wandering about a show wearing the name of a competitor but I think you should try and accept that he has a right to a private life and to change his employers. I must ask you to confirm today the Federal Express Airwaybill number of our order for 28 Telix manuals and ten INT14 versions of Telix. Mail order ethics and common courtesy demands that we write to our customers this evening. We would like to write a brief letter of apology explaining that there will only be a further 4-7 days delay in fulfilling their orders. If we do not receive that Waybill number, you will leave us no alternative to explaining (in what promises to be a mammoth 15 page letter with a further 20 pages of photocopied correspondence) to our customers why we are not shipping their orders. What we currently have in mind for those customers who paid us for manuals would be something on the lines of: "We are sorry that we are unable to fulfill your order for a Telix Manual(s). The enclosed copies of correspondence will, we hope, indicate some of the difficulties involved in properly representing this excellent program in these islands. We hope that the enclosed documentation on disk is helpful but we also enclose copies of some modern programs that you might care to consider if you are looking for comms software with a more adult management team providing proper support in these islands." In that event, we would continue to act as a Registration Point for Telix only up to and including 30 December 1993 and would source our label numbers from INTERSTOP Head Office in the Czech Republic rather than Connect in Hamburg. I have outlined two possible scenarios: 1) There is a time-wasting public row. We're satisfied that a dispassionate, reasonable and informed observer (a rare animal!) would decide that neither my company nor George were really to blame for what is essentially a break-down in communication and a fit of pique. Most people would probalby just remember that there are a whole raft of problems with Telix in Europe. You know what flame wars are like... 2) We both get on with making money and helping our customers communicate. To do this, we need to improve our own communication. There is also a third scenario. You may feel that you do want to launch Telix for Windows (and the possible DOS update) properly in these islands but not using us as the vehicle. The three thousand odd names of Telix registrants and the tens of thousands of other names in our database (all people that have bought comms programs such as Robomail, Doorway, Carbon Copy, etc or modems) would provide a precise target for a mailshot and may also prove to be some of your best sales missionaries. It makes sense (and maximises your own revenues) not to antagonise the shareware community and adopt a dual marketing strategy. By all means use the likes of Ingram Micro, Frontline and Merisel to wholesale your products to the retail channel (you'll be aware already of the small margins and large marketing costs inherent with this route in the British Isles) but also appoint a Shareware registration point. You're throwing away money and, more importantly, goodwill if you don't! Since people will continue to 'phone the 041-204 4310 number embedded in the documentation of 3.15, 3.20 and 3.21 it would really make sense to have the person on that number on your side and at the very least able to provide the latest information as to sales methods. In this case it is certainly in your own financial interests and that of your customers (existing and potential) to liaise with us as to Date of Release, Price, and Sales Outlets, etc. I'd like to think that you'll be man enough to 'phone George today on 041-204 4310 and either call him out if you still think he's in the wrong or apologise if otherwise. But, as a minimum, please send that Waybill number today or the boats will be burned... Sincerely yours for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd Karl Anton Schmidt, Managing Director ===================================================================== deltaComm Development, Inc. PO Box 1185, Cary, NC 27512 FAX COVER PAGE Date: October 19, 1993 To: Karl Anton Schmidt Company: Speedmoden Ltd. Fax: 011-41-204-5026 If you did not receive all of these pages completely, please notify us immediately at (919)-460-4531 (fax) or (919)-460-4556 (tel.) Dear Mr. Schmidt: The exact sequence of events in Colorado were: 1) I saw the badge promoting Terminate worn by an exclusive distributor of ours in Dr. Collins, and took offense. He did change it later. I did at that point agree that we would sell him Int-14 Telix if he would be promoting it. He agreed. 2) 30 minutes later, Dr. Collins told our Dan Horn and Sean Palmer that if asked which was better, Telix or Terminate, he would tell them Terminate. When I heard this, I really was offended, and told the story to Klaus Langer of ELSA, and flatly said that was not the kind of attitude I wanted associated with an exclusive distributor of our product. Klaus asked me if he could quote me, and also asked others at the table if they had heard me say that. (There is no lost love between the two doctors.) If Klaus or Thomas has not discussed this with you, then you need to be in touch with them. As we have told Collins all along, for years and years, any dealings you need to make regarding your agreement are with ELSA through Connect. If Connect will continue to sell to Speedmodem without the involvement of Dr. Collins, that is fine with me, but I do not want Collins involved in any way with our product. I am tired of hearing of this, of complaints about rudeness and nonchalance from customers in Great Britain calling Collins, etc. I shall withhold my more colorful opinion of the character of Dr. Collins in the unfortunate event if you decide to publish this, but I certainly owe him no apology. In any case, we cannot ship copies of Telix to you -- this is the sole responsibility of Connect GmbH. Should Thomas at Connect request that we do so, we will, but that decision is up to him and to Klaus. You say that George is not the registration point for Telix, yet then suggest that we have an outstanding order for manuals to be billed to his credit card number, even though he isn't "associated in any way with Speedmodem". We have no standing order from Connect, provided that ELSA will allow Speedmoden to continue to purchase. That is up to the Germans. We will not take further phone calls from Dr. Collins, and my staff has been informed to refer him to Thomas Schewe at Connect without conversing with him. You also say that I should be on the phone to him to apologize to him, and quote the 4310 number, yet say that Collins is no longer associated with Speedmoden. I do not want Collins answering a phone associated with Telix, and my release a 3.22 of Telix simply to replace that number (if requested to do so by the Germans). You are not authorized to source labels from any other point than Connect GmbH, and any production of your own labels in the Czech republic will be taken by us to be flagrant copyright violation. Further correspondence, orders, complaints, or questions should be directed to Thomas Schewe at Connect GmbH. We shall not respond to further correspondence that does not originate from them. Sincerely, Jeff Woods President cc: Dr. Klaus Langner, ELSA GmbH Thomas Schewe, Connect GmbH ===================================================================== ELSA GmbH Sonnenweg 11 D-52070 Aachen Speedmodem Ltd att. Mr. Karl Anton Schmidt 194 Woodlands Road Glasgow G3 6LN Fax 0044 41 204 5026 Our Reference kl/hs Date 29.10.93 Telix Dear Mr Schmidt, We have been notified by Mr. Jeff Woods about recent correspondance between you and deltaComm. For clarification, we would like to inform you: There has never been a legally binding business relationship between Speedmodem and ELSA. Information within American Telix 3.21 distribution files incorrectly named Speedmodem as 'ELSAs British agent'. To avoid further misunderstanding, we herby state that, to date, neither Intershop, nor CompuCom, nor Speedmodem, nor any person affiliated with one of these companies, have the right to claim any such kind of relationship to ELSA. In the past, there has been a trading relationship between Speedmodem and Connect GmbH. It is Connect's decision alone if and how they prefer to deal with their customers. ELSA being the exclusive distributor for Telix products in Europe certainly wants to see success for Telix in the best possible way, and we trust Thomas Schewe of Connect that he does his best to reach that goal. We hope that Speedmodemn and Connect can continue their cooperation on a mutually beneficial basis. Best regards, ELSA GmbH Dr. Klaus Langner ===================================================================== ELSA GmbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 10 November 1993 Dear Dr Langner Re: Telix Thank you for your fax dated 29 October 1993. I have been unable to reply before now because I needed to check some of the history with other individuals and organisations and consult our legal advisers. We agree with your statement that there "has never been a legally binding business relationship between Speedmodem (sic) and ELSA". That is the root of the current problems since we are unable to actively promote or publicise this fine program in the way it deserves. We therefore propose that we buy from you all the rights to Telix within Eire, the United Kingdom and British Dependent Territories that you purchased from the author Colin Sampaleanu. Please name your price. * We do not wish to seem argumentative, but after studying documents and tape recordings given to me by Dr Collins covering the period 1990-1993 and taking sworn affidavits from three separate witnesses, we are satisfied that: Exis Inc held the Copyright to Telix and assigned all European rights to your company. In 1991 during the course of a tripartite 'phone conversation between Dr Collins (then Secretary of Interstop), yourself and Colin Sampaleaunu of Exis Inc it was agreed without limit of time that Intershop would act as a registration point for english language versions of Telix in Europe. (The pre-amble to this discussion was that, previous to this agreement, Telix was being treated as Freeware because of your companies lack of registration profile in the english language market in Europe. We reiterate that we still estimate the revenues from Telix as being ONE TENTH what they should be if we were given permission to actively police and promote the distribution of the Shareware version in Britain!) It was agreed that Intershop would pay °6 to Exis Inc and °6 to ELSA GmbH for each registration that was accepted. You are wrong when you state "Information within the American Telix 3.21 distribution files incorrectly named Speedmodem as 'ELSAs British agent". In the TELIX.DOC file dated 02-04-91 of version 3.15 produced by Exis there appears the following: "Telix users in the UK may register Telix (including telephone credit card orders) locally through Intershop. Please DO NOT send Intershop the form in this document. Contact: Intershop 6 Dixon St. GLASGOW Scotland G1 4BB +44 (041) 204 4310" From the evidence we have seen it seems quite clear that deltaComm inherited these arrangements since, in the TELIX.DOC file dated 05-02-93 of version 3.21 produced by deltaComm Development, there appeared the following: "Telix users in the UK may register Telix (including credit card orders) locally through Intershop. Contact: Intershop, 136 Holland St., GLASGOW, Scotland, G2 4NB +44 (041) 204 4310" * Should we not be able to agree on a price for all the rights to Telix within Eire, the United Kingdom and British Dependent Territories, then we intend to proceed as follows: 1) We will continue to accept registrations for Telix up to and including 31 December 1993 2) We will continue to buy labels from Thomas Schewe of CONNECT Communications GmbH & Co. KG, D-2000 HAMBURG 60 if, and only if, a) we receive written confirmation that either there is at least another three months before the next version/replacement for Telix is released or that these labels will remain valid for that next version/replacement for Telix... b) Payment arrangements are normalised. (For our last order, Thomas insisted on receiving payment before he dispatched the labels. The value of the labels we have previously bought is a five figure sum in Deutschemark. Every other supplier in Europe gives us terms of at least 30 days. The intrinsic value of the labels if lost is nil [since the serial numbers could then be immediately invalidated]. We therefore propose initiating - as before - a SWIFT transfer of cleared funds on the day that the labels are dispatched - meaning that he will have our money before we receive the labels, but after they have been put in the hands of the Bundespost.) Otherwise we will make alternative arrangements with Interstop in the Czech Republic in the interim. Sincerely yours for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd Karl Anton Schmidt, Managing Director cc: Interstop, Brno PS: The telephone number 041-204 4310 was transferred to Dr Collins on 1 November 1993 as an ex-directory residential line and, although he has now retired, he has agreed to continue to liaise for Interstop in the UK since, even with the immediate distribution of a new Telix version incorporating a new 'phone number, older copies of Telix will undoubtedly continue to circulate for a considerable time. ======================================================================== ELSA GmbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Not Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 24 November 1993 Dear Dr Langner We faxed the following letter to:010-49-241-9177600 on 10 November 1993 but we have not received any sort of reply. Please name your price for selling all the rights to Telix within Eire, the United Kingdom and British Dependent Territories that you purchased from the author Colin Sampaleanu. "Re: Telix Thank you for your fax dated 29 October 1993. I have been unable to reply before now because I needed to check some of the history with other individuals and organisations and consult our legal advisers. We agree with your statement that there "has never been a legally binding business relationship between Speedmodem (sic) and ELSA". That is the root of the current problems since we are unable to actively promote or publicise this fine program in the way it deserves. We therefore propose that we buy from you all the rights to Telix within Eire, the United Kingdom and British Dependent Territories that you purchased from the author Colin Sampaleanu. Please name your price. * We do not wish to seem argumentative, but after studying documents and tape recordings given to me by Dr Collins covering the period 1990-1993 and taking sworn affidavits from three separate witnesses, we are satisfied that: Exis Inc held the Copyright to Telix and assigned all European rights to your company. In 1991 during the course of a tripartite 'phone conversation between Dr Collins (then Secretary of Interstop), yourself and Colin Sampaleaunu of Exis Inc it was agreed without limit of time that Intershop would act as a registration point for english language versions of Telix in Europe. (The pre-amble to this discussion was that, previous to this agreement, Telix was being treated as Freeware because of your companies lack of registration profile in the english language market in Europe. We reiterate that we still estimate the revenues from Telix as being ONE TENTH what they should be if we were given permission to actively police and promote the distribution of the Shareware version in Britain!) It was agreed that Intershop would pay °6 to Exis Inc and °6 to ELSA GmbH for each registration that was accepted. You are wrong when you state "Information within the American Telix 3.21 distribution files incorrectly named Speedmodem as 'ELSAs British agent". In the TELIX.DOC file dated 02-04-91 of version 3.15 produced by Exis there appears the following: "Telix users in the UK may register Telix (including telephone credit card orders) locally through Intershop. Please DO NOT send Intershop the form in this document. Contact: Intershop 6 Dixon St. GLASGOW Scotland G1 4BB +44 (041) 204 4310" From the evidence we have seen it seems quite clear that deltaComm inherited these arrangements since, in the TELIX.DOC file dated 05-02-93 of version 3.21 produced by deltaComm Development, there appeared the following: "Telix users in the UK may register Telix (including credit card orders) locally through Intershop. Contact: Intershop, 136 Holland St., GLASGOW, Scotland, G2 4NB +44 (041) 204 4310" * Should we not be able to agree on a price for all the rights to Telix within Eire, the United Kingdom and British Dependent Territories, then we intend to proceed as follows: 1) We will continue to accept registrations for Telix up to and including 31 December 1993 2) We will continue to buy labels from Thomas Schewe of CONNECT Communications GmbH & Co. KG, D-2000 HAMBURG 60 if, and only if, a) we receive written confirmation that either there is at least another three months before the next version/replacement for Telix is released or that these labels will remain valid for that next version/replacement for Telix... b) Payment arrangements are normalised. (For our last order, Thomas insisted on receiving payment before he dispatched the labels. The value of the labels we have previously bought is a five figure sum in Deutschemark. Every other supplier in Europe gives us terms of at least 30 days. The intrinsic value of the labels if lost is nil [since the serial numbers could then be immediately invalidated]. We therefore propose initiating - as before - a SWIFT transfer of cleared funds on the day that the labels are dispatched - meaning that he will have our money before we receive the labels, but after they have been put in the hands of the Bundespost.) Otherwise we will make alternative arrangements with Intershop in the Czech Republic in the interim." Sincerely yours for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd Karl Anton Schmidt, Managing Director ====================================================================== ELSA GmbH Dr Klaus Langner Sonnenweg 11 D-5100 Aachen Also Faxed to:010-49-241-9177600 GERMANY 20 December 1993 Dear Dr Langner Thank you for your fax received by us at 17:44hrs this afternoon saying that you "will be happy to consider the matter of selling certain rights to distribute Telix". We were a little bit puzzled since 1) it bears a date of 29.10.93 and refers to "Your Message of 24.11.93 2) it refers "to a due account of DM 6065,80 DM (sic) where a person is involved you and I know quite well and whose relationship to Intershop, Compucom and Speedmodem might much likely remain in the clouds forever." We will assume that the former is a simple mistake. As regards the latter, please clarify immediately, since we are unaware of any such sums owing. Please be clear that we are only interested in buying all the rights to Telix within Eire, the United Kingdom and British Dependent Territories that you purchased from the author Colin Sampaleanu. Anything less would complicate the issue even further! * Should we not be able to agree on a price for all the rights to Telix within Eire, the United Kingdom and British Dependent Territories within the next week, then we still intend to proceed as follows: 1) We will continue to accept registrations for Telix up to and including 31 December 1993 2) We will continue to buy labels from CONNECT Communications GmbH & Co. KG, D-2000 HAMBURG 60 if, and only if, a) we receive written confirmation that either there is at least another three months before the next version or replacement for Telix is released or that these labels will remain valid for that next version/replacement for Telix... b) Payment arrangements are normalised. (For our last order, Thomas insisted on receiving payment before he dispatched the labels. The value of the labels we have previously bought is a five figure sum in Deutschemark. Every other supplier in Europe gives us terms of at least 30 days. The intrinsic value of the labels if lost is nil [since the serial numbers could then be immediately invalidated]. We therefore propose initiating - as before - a SWIFT transfer of cleared funds on the day that the labels are dispatched - meaning that he will have our money before we receive the labels, but after they have been put in the hands of the Bundespost.) Otherwise we will continue the alternative arrangements with Interstop in the Czech Republic. Sincerely yours for & on behalf of SpeedModem Ltd Karl Anton Schmitt, Managing Director * There are obviously other letters, faxes and tape transcripts but we think this is enough for you to get the flavour that the breakdown in relationships was due to the inability of ELSA GmbH to move swiftly enough and the blind anger of Jeff Woods when faced with competition in the shape of Terminate. Now you have this copy of Terminate, perhaps you understand why Jeff Woods was worried...