Aladdin and SITPatch: further developments

Last time, I reported that Aladdin had requested I refrain from posting additional items regarding David's SITPatch. Here are some further developments in this matter:

SITPatch removed David Sholkoff, author of SITPatch, has agreed to remove the program from his site. David wrote: "I understand Aladdin's concerns and have, therefore, tentatively complied with the request."

Clarification of posting From the many emails I received, it became clear that at least some readers thought Aladdin had threatened legal action against MacFixIt if I did not comply with their request. This was not the case! Aladdin merely asked me to consider their request. There was never any hint of legal action. The legal issue only came up in the context of the justification for their position regarding the software itself, not my coverage of it.

Aladdin replies I have been assured by my contacts at Aladdin that they are investigating the problems that were "fixed" by SITPatch and are working on a solution that will satisfy all users. In this regard, Dale Sorenson wrote to Aladdin to complain about this matter and received a reply from Jonathan Kahn (President of Aladdin). Here is an excerpt:

The people at Aladdin care greatly about our users and our products. All 46 people who work at Aladdin want one thing: a great product.

As for the Internet config issues. First we asked David to remove the software because it makes it impossible for us to support the product. Second we have thanked David for what he did, and pointing out a problem. As we develop the next version of StuffIt Expander, we will most likely modify the actions of the "Internet Preferences" area, and the automatic resetting of File Mappings at exit. Overall, we feel that the addition of this preference is a good one; however, our implementation seems to have been a little overaggressive. We understand the frustration that drove you to use SITPatch, and the number of users who obtained it clearly demonstrates the need for Aladdin to reconsider our File Mapping strategy. I have taken your concern to the product manager and asked him to present to me a solution to fix this issue, so that we can resolve this matter.