Re: [ros-general] Microsoft wants royalties for use of FAT

[Richard Campbell]

M$ appears to only be going after hardware manufacturers, ROS need not 
worry for now, if microsoft decides to target operating systems, you can 
bet your bottom dollar they'll have it out with linux first, and there 
will be a hellacious court battle before things get past that.

On a somewhat unrelated topic, the tech industry is slowly being torn to 
shreds with stupid ass laws.  When will the madness end?

Vizzini wrote:

>  On Thu, 2003-12-04 at 16:03, Casper Hornstrup wrote:
>   
>
> >  http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/tech/fat.asp
> >     
> >  
> sigh...
>
> Looks pretty bad, actually.  We're going to have to think about this. 
> This patent really can't be licensed for use with a GPL'd operating
> system unless the fundamental terms are changed.  
>
> CDs and DVDs would still be usable, and floppy disks might be if we
> don't implement any patented things (FAT existed in 1985, and all those
> patents are expired now).  
>
> Things could get really sticky with digital cameras, mp3 players, etc...
>
> I'd be curious to see how RMS would respond to this.  Steven, would you
> care to run this by him?
>
> Also, I fear that this is just the tip of the iceberg.  MS also has a
> royalty deal on the website for ClearType, and I guarantee they have
> thousands of patents that cover all of the obvious things.  I guess
> we'll just have to deal with them as they come up.
>
> A quick US patent database search shows 2,884 patents assigned to MS
> since 1976.  On further review, it appears that every single one has
> issued since 1986, meaning that every one of them is valid and
> enforcable.
>
> Joy.
>
>  -Vizzini
>
>
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>