[En-Nut-Discussion] Phat Formatting

[Henrik Maier]

It indeed appears that the patent relates to long file names only. Refer to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat32#FAT_licensing

Some more reading about the patent and MS license fees:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3576896

Henrik

> -----Original Message-----
> From: en-nut-discussion-bounces at egnite.de [mailto:en-nut-discussion-
> bounces at egnite.de] On Behalf Of Alain M.
> Sent: Wednesday, 17 September 2008 8:06 AM
> To: Ethernut User Chat (English)
> Subject: Re: [En-Nut-Discussion] Phat Formatting
> 
> 
> Eric Haver escreveu:
> > Gruss Harald,
> > I am a native English speaker, and I had great trouble reading it,
> also.
> 
> :) it is really confusing.
> 
> But ...
> 1) The licence bellow is about the specifications document
> 2) there is suposed to be (sorry I don't have the link) a PATENT on the
> FAT32 format, wich is another monster by it's own.
> 
> I found this from FreeDOS:
> 
> Two FreeDOS resources about the patents:
> http://www.freedos.org/freedos/news/press/2006-fat.html
> * U.S. Patent #5,579,517  Common name space for long and short filenames
> * U.S. Patent #5,758,352 Common name space for long and short filenames
> * U.S. Patent #6,286,013 Method and system for providing a common name
>    space for long and short file names in an operating system
> http://fd-doc.sourceforge.net/faq/cgi-
> bin/viewfaq.cgi?faq=General_Information/160
> (note: do you know what that spam means? some code or just gibberish?)
> 
> But maybe the pattent is only for Long File Names...
> 
> Alain
> 
> 
> 
> > From:
> > http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/firmware/fatgen.mspx
> >
> > Basically it looks to me that if you download and use  FATGEN103.doc,
> the
> > specs for FAT32,  you will hold Microsoft blameless for any problems
> it
> > causes, or inaccuracies contained.
> >
> > There is no mention of paying a fee for using it. they do mention that
> if
> > you sue them, you can not get more than $5.00.
> >
> > Here are some ausschnitte:
> >
> > 1. LIMITED LICENSE AND COVENANT NOT TO SUE.
> >
> > (a) Provided that you comply with all terms and conditions of this
> Agreement
> > and subject to the limitations in Sections 1(c) - (f) below, Microsoft
> > grants to you the following non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free,
> > non-transferable, non-sublicenseable license under any copyrights
> owned or
> > licensable by Microsoft without payment of consideration to
> unaffiliated
> > third parties, to reproduce the Specification solely for the purposes
> of
> > creating portions of products which comply with the Specification in
> > unmodified form.
> >
> > The paragraph for us, is 1(e):
> > (e) Each of the license and the covenant not to sue described above
> shall
> > not extend to your use of any portion of the Specification for any
> purpose
> > other than (a) to create portions of an operating system (i) only as
> > necessary to adapt such operating system so that it can directly
> interact
> > with a firmware implementation of the Extensible Firmware Initiative
> > Specification v. 1.0 ("EFI Specification"); (ii) only as necessary to
> > emulate an implementation of the EFI Specification; and (b) to create
> > firmware, applications, utilities and/or drivers that will be used
> and/or
> > licensed for only the following purposes: (i) to install, repair and
> > maintain hardware, firmware and portions of operating system software
> which
> > are utilized in the boot process; (ii) to provide to an operating
> system
> > runtime services that are specified in the EFI Specification; (iii) to
> > diagnose and correct failures in the hardware, firmware or operating
> system
> > software; (iv) to query for identification of a computer system
> (whether by
> > serial numbers, asset tags, user or otherwise); (v) to perform
> inventory of
> > a computer system; and (vi) to manufacture, install and setup any
> hardware,
> > firmware or operating system software.
> >
> > So, I think there is no problem...
> >
> > *Eric
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 3:23 AM, Harald Kipp <harald.kipp at egnite.de>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Alain,
> >>
> >> Alain M. wrote:
> >>> I believe that the problem here is the licence. FAT32 is a Microsoft
> >>> patent, open software can use it, but embedded system cannot format
> any
> >>> media... or something close to it, read the licence, it may be more
> >>> complicated.
> >> Never heard about patent problems specifically with formatting,
> though
> >> I'm aware that FAT is not plain sailing. All this license stuff is
> >> difficult to read for non-native English speakers and I appreciate
> any
> >> help on this topic.
> >>
> >> The funny thing is, that my PDA running MS WinPPC cannot format SD
> Cards
> >> either.
> >>
> >> Harald
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> http://lists.egnite.de/mailman/listinfo/en-nut-discussion
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > http://lists.egnite.de/mailman/listinfo/en-nut-discussion
> >
> >
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