FAT file system now licensed by MS ?

On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, SP wrote: I cant comment on that, since I am part of that procedure. Yeah, looks like they do :) The funny part is, that after careful reading, they indeed base their claims on patents for something *related* to FAT (the LFN addons to implement long(er) file names), but not FAT itself. As Sellam already pointed out, in those days, software was not patentable as such, and even copyrights were still worked on :) So.. the question remains: regardless of who *invented* the FAT disk structure (GAT, FAT, FAT16, MACDOS) principle, was it ever subject to a *license* of sorts? I very seriously doubt this. If this were so, anyone being subpoenad by MS *now* could claim belated charges (you cant let something happen for 20 years, and then suddenly go "oooh, darn, thats not right, sue the bastard!"), and be done with it. Microsoft will have to come up to me with better paperwork than those patents. (yes, I just sent them a FAX announcing the refusal to comply in my PDP-11 OS.) Cant remember who wrote this, but: they are not licensing their *code* to process FAT file systems, they intend to license the file system itself. Meaning not just the software that handles it (think any phone or camera, Cisco's IOS software, etc) but also the media that physically implements (SD/flash/MemoryStick card around) this great finding of the past.. Cheers, Fred -- Fred N. van Kempen, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Collector/Archivist Visit the VAXlab Project at http://www.pdp11.nl/VAXlab/ Visit the Archives at http://www.pdp11.nl/ Email: waltje(a)pdp11.nl BUSSUM, THE NETHERLANDS / Sunnyvale, CA, USA