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

[Andrew "Silver Blade" Greenwood]

This gave me an interesting idea...

Maybe ReactOS could use ext2/ext3/ReiserFS or some other file system, and
provide a conversion utility and FAT/NTFS read-only capabilities? This would
certainly be bad for MS because not only will ReactOS then be open-source
NT, but will also favour Linux's file system over Microsoft's...

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hey Matthew" [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 11:13 PM
Subject: RE: [ros-general] Microsoft wants royalties for use of FAT
> As far as i can tell, the patents don't stop the use of the FAT
> file system layout or structures, they only relate to the creation
> of long file names. Therefore we can still use FAT and even 'read'
> long file names, but just not generate them without infingement.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vizzini [mailto:[e-mail]]
> Sent: Friday, 5 December 2003 11:54 a.m.
> To: [e-mail]
> Subject: Re: [ros-general] Microsoft wants royalties for use of FAT
>
> 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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