Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 2nd Jul 2009 16:17 UTC, submitted by lemur2
The FAT file system is the file system used by MS-DOS and earlier versions of Windows. It's a relatively simple and straightforward file system, supported by just about any operating system, making it the favoured file system on memory cards and the like. FAT is an ECMA and ISO standard, but these only apply for FAT12 and FAT16 without support for long file names, and therein lies a problem.
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RE[3]: Here's the patch to make Windows XP safe.
by kaiwai on Fri 3rd Jul 2009 10:20
in reply to "RE[2]: Here's the patch to make Windows XP safe."
Member since:2005-07-06
That is quite surprising, I would have thought given that NTFS is one of Microsoft's crown jewels that they would have been more concerned about that than whether someone uses FAT with long file name support. I guess they (Microsoft) assume that it is complex enough for people to pay for specifications or its limited use wouldn't generate the cash worthy of funding any possible legal challenges against third parties.
That raises an issue which I am surprised EU haven't picked up on, if patents are used to protect innovative ideas then why protect something like FAT which is hardly a strategic asset in the Windows world - so the FAT patent when looked form that perspective has nothing to do with protecting an idea and everything to do with stopping interoperability on an incredibly commonly used file system.
One of the things I am pushing in NZ a law against it, explicitly pointing out software patents; I'm not too sure whether one can obtain them in New Zealand but I'd sooner have an explicit law forbidding them then leaving it up to the patent office to 'exercise good judgement'.
RE[4]: Here's the patch to make Windows XP safe.
by rramalho on Fri 3rd Jul 2009 11:08
in reply to "RE[3]: Here's the patch to make Windows XP safe."
Member since:2007-07-11
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Member since:
2007-03-04
No: http://www.ntfs-3g.org/support.html#patent