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If Microsoft truely own a patent on the FORMAT (questionable) and not just the software for read / writing FAT then they have a case. Going to be a bit of a bind on Memory Card producers and there users (MP3/Digital Cameras/Pen Drives), still I guess we could always suggest to the manufacturers that they save their money (licenses and legal fees) and move to say ext3 format. I shouldnt think its that hard to convert the cameras software, heck the source code is free, which is a good start, and as its a USB feed at the other end its just a case of picking up messages to read / write blocks of data ? Or am I being ignorant ? Maybe Microsoft hold a patent on the right to read / write blocks of information as well, who knows ? Anyway before I go (totally) off into total daft mode, as Princess Leia said "the more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers". So as far as I am concerned Microsoft can bring it on. Im just off to re-format all my dos partitions on my linux box .... hang on a minute .... I havent got any !!!!!! Microsoft could use this to their advantage to kill the dual boot market. Presumably only their routines (and those of anybody mug enough to by their license) would be licensed to use a fat partition, therefore any non licensed third party routines (like vfat.o) would be in violation. Its going to be hard for thoes that would like to ween themselves off microsoft slowly via the dual boot method. This is all under the assumption that the fat format has a valid patient on it ( I suspect FUD, but I better check with my lawyer before I make any wild accusations !) Seriously Microsoft must be in deep financial trouble if they need to go this far to live on "the FAT of the land" or in this case "FAT of the disk drive". Maybe they need the money for the next round of patent aquisition ? Tom. Information in this message is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is the intended solely for the person ( or persons) to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender, and please delete the message from your system immediately. The views in this message are personal, they are not necessarily those of Torbay Council. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.