MS is targetting two groups at the moment: Vendors of USB sticks who preinstall files on their sticks, and vendors of cams and mp3 players
Wait a sec, how could the patent be used against storing LFN files on a USB stick. Suppose the vendor of the stick uses Windows to copy files to one stick, no patents violated. Then the stick is mass produced, and the raw data is duplicated. I guess still no patents violated, since the data is never interpreted in this step, only raw copied. (If that would violate the patent, so would every backup software deep copying data and storing it on backup medium such as a CD-ROM) And finally the user puts the stick in her Windows computer, Windows interprets the file system, still no patent violated.
I see your point with cams and mp3 players however since they have to interpret data, so they'll have to stick with SFN.
Another question: If MS would in fact decide to sue ROS, would the whole project be in target, or only the one programmer behind the FAT implementation?
/nitro2k01
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