A reader from Belgium writes:
I am a dedicated user of Sophocles. Indeed, my new film, its breakdown, call sheets, budget and whatnot have been generated with that software, which I find the best, most complete, film-minded and reliable that I have ever used (and I used or tried about everything that is out there since I started working with computers, which is way back in 1981). The only drawback for a Belgian writing in Dutch or French is that it has no foreign language spelling checkers, but that is a minor hindrance compared to its many well thought out features.
However, some weeks ago, after an annoying crash, I needed to do a major overhaul of my PC on which the software is installed and suddenly the Sophocles version that I use (which is the most recent Beta version) turned out to be “non activated” – meaning that one can do everything except print whatever one needs. Activating the software presents no problem usually: you contact the maker, and a special code is mailed to you instantly, which you have then to type into a “script” page.
Then disaster struck: every trace of the Sophocles home page (www.sophocles.net) had disappeared from the surface of the Internet. And if a few days ago there were still some urls in that direction mentioned on search engines like Google (even if they delivered only web page not found error messages), now even those remnants have vanished. In semi-desperation (semi, because my producer-partner’s copy is still in perfect running order on his pc, so it’s not a matter of a Beta version being discontinued), I tried first to mail to the software support address where the messages came back as undeliverable. Then I tried to contact the maker himself, Tim Seehan, whose mail address I happen to have. There the messages were not returned, but not answered either. However, judging there are no posts as yet about this almost science-fiction like disappearance, and the recent remnants on the Net, this vanishing act must be quite recent.
Now my question: do you or one of your readers perhaps have any idea of what is going on? I would be most grateful to know this, because the software is truly a pleasure to use – on all levels of filmmaking.
— Harry Kümel
I poked around and found a [few](http://cdeemer2007.blogspot.com/2008/04/sophocles-again.html) [discussions](http://messageboard.donedealpro.com/boards/showthread.php?t=39349&page=7), but no definitive answers. Anyone out there know the scoop?
Sophocles is/was a screenwriting program for the PC that had additional features some users loved. (I tried it out using BootCamp for the Mac, but never found a need for it.) There are alternatives, but it’s always distressing when a program you rely on goes AWOL.
It’s also a good argument for open file formats.