"Jeff V. Merkey" wrote:
>
> I've allocated $20,000 US for this, but i doubt you will use all of it.
> Linux IP issues affect all of us since we ship Linux, so I am happy to
> pick up the tab. Tux is hot stuff, and we plan to use it, along with
> all the other great Linux stuff. Consider it our part to help Linux.
> The structure of TRG is modeled a lot like Microsoft -- we are actually
> a law firm thinly disguised as a software company (just like MS)
> snicker... snicker .... :-)
Is it legal to snicker about Microsoft?
Thank you so much. The response I've gotten on this from all sides has
been amazing. I still haven't heard a thing from Netapp, nor have I
tried to contact them, other than through this public forum. Um, it's a
public matter so I don't think I'm acting incorrectly.
Q: What would be more evil than a patent?
A: A copyrighted patent. Then you have to pay to find out what you
can't do and they have a monopoly so they can make you pay whatever
they want.
Here's a gem of a claim from the main WAFL patent:
"20. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of using one or
more of said read-only copies of said file system to back-up said
blocks comprising one or more consistency points of said file system."
http://innominate.org/~phillips/wafl.patent.5819292.html
I may be interpreting this incorrectly, but this seems to say that they
claim proprietary rights to making a backup from a checkpoint.
-- Daniel - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Oct 07 2000 - 21:00:14 EST