REALTIME IT NEWS
REALTIME IT NEWS
Newsletters Select newsletters below and click the button to sign up!
Internetnews BloggersRecent Entries
ArchivesMonthly ArchivesSearch The Blog
Linux devs strike back at Microsoft patent claims From the 'cutting the FAT' files: In 2007, Microsoft shook up the Linux community with claims that open source allegedly infringes on as many as 235 of Microsoft's patents. Until this year, Microsoft had not actually filed any kind of legal suits on those patents - which changed with the TomTom case. With TomTom, Microsoft showed its hand, and identified some of its IP issue with Linux as being related to FAT (Define:FAT). At the time, I thought the legal challenge was a great thing for Linux because it finally showed devs where Microsoft had some issues. Developers have long said they would simply replace or code around Microsoft's IP, but they first needed to know where that IP resides. Now Linux developer Andrew Tridgell has developed a patch that could potentially help out Linux users to get around the FAT issue. "Both the original patch and the new patch that we posted today have been through legal review by several lawyers who specialize in this area," Tridgell wrote in a mailing list posting.
In a nutshell the Tridgell patch for is all about getting around
Microsoft's IP claims which are related to creating or storing a long
filename entry with FAT. The goal of the Linux community is to ensure
as best as is possible to make sure that Linux does not infringe on
Microsoft's patents.
It's a good idea - though from a practical point of view, in my non-legal opinion - there are still risks. For one the patches that Tridgell has now produced are not currently in the production Linux kernel deployed on millions of desktops and servers. At some point in the (near) future, I think it's safe to assume that the patch will be in the mainline Linux kernel. It will still take several years (if ever) until the patch replaces all existing instances of the allegedly Microsoft infringing FAT IP. But it is a start and simply doing nothing when there is a known issue, is not a viable option. 0 TrackBacksListed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Linux devs strike back at Microsoft patent claims. TrackBack URL for this entry: https://swarm.jupitermedia.com/mt-tb.cgi/8402 5 CommentsLeave a comment |
||
Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints, Permissions, Privacy Policy.
Advertise | Newsletters | Shopping | E-mail Offers | Freelance Jobs 
Digg
Del.icio.us
furl
StumbleUpon
BlinkList
Newsvine
Magnolia
Facebook
Tailrank
Slashdot
Technorati
Google
Bookmarks
Yahoo
Favorites
Windows
Live
Ask
MS is holding back software development and is holding it's costumers hostage. City Government should push Obuntu now more than ever. We a hurting and MS operating systems are not affordable in city and state government.
MS is holding back software development and is holding it's costumers hostage. City Government should push Obuntu now more than ever. We a hurting and MS operating systems are not affordable in city and state government.
This is only a problem in the US and a few rare other ones. Most countries don't allow software patents or patents as obvious as the FAT patent....
TomTom was only sued in the US. They would have had no problem if they wouldn't have sold their units there.
Congratulations to the most broken system worldwide, a clear innovative invention (should apply for a US patent for it).
>kjs
Due to the limited 8.3 format of DOS and CP/M plus other computers of the late 70s and early 80s, there were example programs in computer magazines that allowed you to write descriptions to include with file names. This was particularly useful to people that had collections of software that needed more info than could be kept in a limited 8.3 format.
Long file names is not a large leap forward that would appear necessary to create a patent as a new concept, but more like a necessity that finally got filled in with a solution.
Just for comment; A person I work with had an Ause Notebook with MS installed. It crashed in the first week!!! It now has Linux installed!