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Milesey
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Location: Holmfirth
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 Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:29 pm Post subject: Re: Tom Tom paying to settle |
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So this potentially means that within two years, TT may not be able to use FAT on their SD cards (or internal SD ?) which means to copy files to the TT, we'll either have to copy via a new version of HOME or by mounting the TT as an open file system such as EXT3. |
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layingback
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Joined: Feb 12, 2009
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| Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:33 am Post subject: |
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A bit more info here - 2 articles so far.
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Darren
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Location: Hampshire, UK
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| Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:05 am Post subject: |
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Microsoft and TomTom have settled their patent infringement claims against each other.
Microsoft announced this morning (see here) that it has settled its cases in an agreement in which TomTom will pay Microsoft for the use of the eight patents and in return Microsoft will be permitted to make use the four TomTom patents in a five year licensing deal.
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Milesey
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Joined: Mar 07, 2006
Posts: 93
Location: Holmfirth
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| Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 12:48 pm Post subject: |
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Talk about confusing ... I guess the key statement for us users is:
"TomTom will remove from its products the functionality related to two file management system patents (the “FAT LFN patents”), which enables efficient naming, organizing, storing and accessing of file data. TomTom will remove this functionality within two years, and the agreement provides for coverage directly to TomTom’s end customers under these patents during that time."
I think the effect of that on us, would most likely be that our POI filenames will have to be 8.3 (8 chars filename and 3 for extension) ?? |
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mikealder
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Joined: Jan 14, 2005
Posts: 19638
Location: Blackpool , Lancs
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| Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 12:53 pm Post subject: |
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If this does happen then think of all the POI files that will need renaming  - Mike |
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Andy_P
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Joined: Jun 04, 2005
Posts: 19991
Location: West and Southwest London
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| Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Sheesh! |
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layingback
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Joined: Feb 12, 2009
Posts: 124
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| Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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If you really want to understand what is going on here, read this. It's a long read, but covers the salient facts pretty well. Here's a couple of quotes:
| Quote: | | There's nothing in the press release about the settlement to contradict the notion that TomTom might have settled for one dollar....What Microsoft really wants from TomTom isn't money, it's support in building fear about Linux in other companies, especially the makers of mobile and wireless devices just like TomTom's own product. Microsoft wants you to believe you need a Microsoft license to deploy Open Source software.... |
| Quote: | | Like Novell, TomTom's action shows contempt for the Linux developers whose resources they gained for free and use to great profit in their product. They violate the spirit of the license granted by those developers by using a legal trick that purports to comply with the letter of that license. |
| Quote: | | VC Larry Augustin contends...The industry must turn to a royalty-free filesystem for removable devices, and it's an excellent time to do so: an increase in the size of FLASH memory devices will require a conversion from FAT32, which won't accomodate larger devices, to something else. One of the many Open Source filesystems that are licensed with liberal terms, and that already handle extremely large disks and long filenames, would do...Unfortunately, they haven't broken so far. The "something else" the industry has selected for the next removable media filesystem so far is really the same thing: ExFAT, an even-more-patented Microsoft technology derived from the previous FAT filesystem...Augustin suggests a "Get the FAT Out" campaign similar to the movement against GIF files years ago, when Unisys attempted to enforce a patent royalty on the use of pictures on the internet. |
Software patents are a huge impediment to technology, and for those in Europe don't take the last few paragraphs too literally - the dark forces are sure to make yet another pass at getting Software Patents into Europe and elsewhere.
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1ka
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Joined: Sep 08, 2007
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| Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:25 am Post subject: |
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| Milesey wrote: |
I think the effect of that on us, would most likely be that our POI filenames will have to be 8.3 (8 chars filename and 3 for extension) ?? |
More likely they'll use an alternative open source file system. Linux can use a multitude of file systems, most of which are journalled to help avoid file write errors. If they choose carefully then we may end up with more space on our systems as FAT can be very inefficient on large capacity devices.
Also, for the legal angle in layman's terms then look at the Groklaw site. |
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