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

[Vizzini]

On Mon, 2003-12-08 at 18:55, Wierd Wierd wrote:
> There is a problem with CD, and DVD as well. You may be able to
> implement ISO-9660 without a hitch, but microsoft's Joliet and Romeo
> (less known) file descriptors are the IP of Microsoft corp

True.  For these cases, I think we have to implement the non-patented
stuff and keep an eye on the marketplace for incompatbile CDs.  I think
we'll need to take the same approach wrt FAT, for what that's worth.

I thought UDF (dvd format) had LFN support built-in.  

Does anyone know the patent status of ISO9660 and UDF?  It sure would be
a bummer to find out that they are patented too.


Also, whence cometh El Toritio?

> IE-- if you use an internal Zip drive (property of Iomega corp for
> design), wouldnt Iomega have to take out a license from M$ to use the
> FAT file system? Is that license transferable? 

IANAL, but I'd say that anytime you write code to do patented things,
you have to have a license to do it.  This includes your code reading a
FAT filesystem (at least for the patented bits).

 -Vizzini