FAT patent back.

[mobrien_12]

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/06/01/11/0555252.shtml

"After initially rejecting Microsoft's File Allocation Table (FAT) patents, the USPTO has ruled them valid. From the article: 'Microsoft has won a debate where they were the only party allowed to speak, in that the patent re-examination process bars the public from rebutting arguments made by Microsoft, said unimpressed Public Patent Foundation President Dan Ravicher.'"

[Aloone_Jonez]

I'm very interested about how they plan to inforce this, I imagine they'll be a few lawsuits.

Is there anything we can do about this?

How can we stop this happening in the EU?

[worker201]

Apparently this doesn't affect my already FAT* formatted drives.  It only affects consumer sales devices, like USBkeys that are preformatted.  And since there are literally hundreds of filesystems out there, finding a new one to avoid the patent will be little more than an inconvenience.  But still, this was a shitty thing to do.  Fuck you and your patents, Microsoft.

[cymon]

I really don't have sympathy for those affected with FAT drives. Someone should go and tell them that it's a new millenium, wake up and smell the hex. All of my drives are either HFS+ or EXT3. If you have to use FAT filesystems, aka you are Win98 user, this is just another reason to switch to Linux or BSD, or to buy a mac.

But still, the fact that Microsoft is taking credit for something they bought out is really dissapointing. Expected, but still unacceptable. Seeing that they only got it because people were barred from debating it is meaningless.

[WMD]

Actually, FAT does have something good going for it: it's got mature, robust read/write support in nearly every OS out there.  I would never use anything else for my USB flash drive.  With FAT, I can plug it into any computer with USB and not worry.

[worker201]

That's probably why it is so common in digital devices.  I guess now companies will have to start adopting UCF or whatever.  You know, since somebody went ahead and made a free open standard for portable digital devices and all.

[mobrien_12]

Actually, FAT does have something good going for it: it's got mature, robust read/write support in nearly every OS out there.  I would never use anything else for my USB flash drive.  With FAT, I can plug it into any computer with USB and not worry.

I agree.  I need to use my USB flash drives with non-linux systems too.  

Not to mention the fact that my digital camera will not work if I format its flash memory with anything but FAT.  

It also is worth mentioning that the use of a journaled file system on a flash drive is really NOT a good idea.

I'm just wondering how long it will be before MS tries to use this as a weapon against Linux.  You all know it's coming.

[Pathos]

NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[toadlife]

But still, the fact that Microsoft is taking credit for something they bought out is really dissapointing. Expected, but still unacceptable.

They don't have a patent for what they bought - they have a patent for the extentions they added onto it that allow long filenames to coexist with short "8.3" filenames. AFAIK, you can use FAT sans the long filename support freely.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Anyway why are we so worried about hardware?

Surely we should be more concerned about the consequences for free software.

[Aloone_Jonez]

They don't have a patent for what they bought - they have a patent for the extentions they added onto it that allow long filenames to coexist with short "8.3" filenames. AFAIK, you can use FAT sans the long filename support freely.

Where does it say that?

The aritcal makes no mention of long filenames, it just deals with FAT. Either way Linux is in violation of the patent because it uses long filenames.

[toadlife]

Where does it say that?

The aritcal makes no mention of long filenames, it just deals with FAT. Either way Linux is in violation of the patent because it uses long filenames.

I saw a couple of people post it, so I found the actual pantent numbers and looked them up at the US Patent office. There are three of them and they all mention the use of long file names.

[Calum]

Actually, FAT does have something good going for it: it's got mature, robust read/write support in nearly every OS out there.  I would never use anything else for my USB flash drive.  With FAT, I can plug it into any computer with USB and not worry.

exactly. but how will somebody know if you have a fat filesystem on your device? will there be FAT detector aerials? I don't see how somebody's filesystems can be detected and proven.

[Pathos]

I really hope someone in the hardware sector grows some balls and presuades everyone to ext2 so microsoft have to release updates to add drivers for windows.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

I really hope someone in the hardware sector grows some balls and presuades everyone to ext2 so microsoft have to release updates to add drivers for windows.

uhhh .. I don't see any way of that happening ... unless Mac grows some balls or Linux's marketshare skyrockets exponentially ... the word Monopoly seems to be appropriate here ... :fu: M$