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Posted to general@jakarta.apache.org by "Andrew C. Oliver" <ac...@apache.org> on 2003/03/15 01:57:22 UTC
fair notice
I appologize to those of us who get this 2 times...
This could later affect POI (http://jakarta.apache.org/poi), but does
not currently: http://www.advogato.org/article/101.html
Granted POI would be in "good company" with a wide berth of software and
there would likely be a retributative effect that
might backfire on Microsoft.
I'll keep this brief, but the patenting of file formats could be a
disturbing trend. I'll certainly keep an eye on this.
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Re: fair notice
Posted by Ryan Ackley <sa...@cfl.rr.com>.
I think were pretty safe from the same thing happening to POI.
Based on what I know about file formats, they generally aren't patentable.
It is how the data is stored by a particular file format that is patentable.
Most modern media formats use some type of compression and this is what the
vendors patent. I am sure this is the case with the ASF format. For example,
GIF has the same problem. Unisys owns the patent to LZW compression which is
what the GIF file format is based on. You cannot write software that creates
GIF files without paying a licensing fee to Unisys. I believe that it is
Unisys' number one revenue source.
Word and Excel don't offer any innovative way to store data. They are both
just one giant data structure. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft may have
already patented the OLE format. Who knows if they even care...
Ryan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew C. Oliver" <ac...@apache.org>
To: "POI Developers List" <po...@jakarta.apache.org>; "Jakarta General
List" <ge...@jakarta.apache.org>
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 7:57 PM
Subject: fair notice
> I appologize to those of us who get this 2 times...
>
> This could later affect POI (http://jakarta.apache.org/poi), but does
> not currently: http://www.advogato.org/article/101.html
> Granted POI would be in "good company" with a wide berth of software and
> there would likely be a retributative effect that
> might backfire on Microsoft.
>
> I'll keep this brief, but the patenting of file formats could be a
> disturbing trend. I'll certainly keep an eye on this.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: poi-dev-unsubscribe@jakarta.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: poi-dev-help@jakarta.apache.org
>
>
Re: fair notice
Posted by "Andrew C. Oliver" <ac...@apache.org>.
Doh! someone just sent this to me. I didn't notice the date! thanks
for pointing that out.
Theoretically I suppose you could patent OLE 2 Compound document format...
"Bad way to aggregate objects into a mock filesystem inside of a file"
Glad its old news!
mwomack@apache.org wrote:
>The link is to information that is a little old (June 2000). Is there a
>more recent update that is disturbing you? Did this particular example ever
>go anywhere? Patenting file formats might be disturbing, and I'm not an
>expert, but I don't see how it would stop someone from reverse engineering a
>"reader" or a "writer" of that format. Wouldn't it just mean that one
>wouldn't be able to create a file format that is the same? I guess it
>depends on how the patent is written, I suppose.
>
>-Mark
>
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Andrew C. Oliver [mailto:acoliver@apache.org]
>>Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 4:57 PM
>>To: POI Developers List; Jakarta General List
>>Subject: fair notice
>>
>>
>>I appologize to those of us who get this 2 times...
>>
>>This could later affect POI (http://jakarta.apache.org/poi), but does
>>not currently: http://www.advogato.org/article/101.html
>>Granted POI would be in "good company" with a wide berth of software and
>>there would likely be a retributative effect that
>>might backfire on Microsoft.
>>
>>I'll keep this brief, but the patenting of file formats could be a
>>disturbing trend. I'll certainly keep an eye on this.
>>
>>
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscribe@jakarta.apache.org
>>For additional commands, e-mail: general-help@jakarta.apache.org
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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>
>
>
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Re: fair notice
Posted by "Andrew C. Oliver" <ac...@apache.org>.
Doh! someone just sent this to me. I didn't notice the date! thanks
for pointing that out.
Theoretically I suppose you could patent OLE 2 Compound document format...
"Bad way to aggregate objects into a mock filesystem inside of a file"
Glad its old news!
mwomack@apache.org wrote:
>The link is to information that is a little old (June 2000). Is there a
>more recent update that is disturbing you? Did this particular example ever
>go anywhere? Patenting file formats might be disturbing, and I'm not an
>expert, but I don't see how it would stop someone from reverse engineering a
>"reader" or a "writer" of that format. Wouldn't it just mean that one
>wouldn't be able to create a file format that is the same? I guess it
>depends on how the patent is written, I suppose.
>
>-Mark
>
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Andrew C. Oliver [mailto:acoliver@apache.org]
>>Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 4:57 PM
>>To: POI Developers List; Jakarta General List
>>Subject: fair notice
>>
>>
>>I appologize to those of us who get this 2 times...
>>
>>This could later affect POI (http://jakarta.apache.org/poi), but does
>>not currently: http://www.advogato.org/article/101.html
>>Granted POI would be in "good company" with a wide berth of software and
>>there would likely be a retributative effect that
>>might backfire on Microsoft.
>>
>>I'll keep this brief, but the patenting of file formats could be a
>>disturbing trend. I'll certainly keep an eye on this.
>>
>>
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscribe@jakarta.apache.org
>>For additional commands, e-mail: general-help@jakarta.apache.org
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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>
>
RE: fair notice
Posted by Danny Angus <da...@apache.org>.
> Patenting file formats might be disturbing, and I'm not an
> expert, but I don't see how it would stop someone from reverse
> engineering a
> "reader" or a "writer" of that format.
I think it more likely that a file format patent *is* actually a patent on readers and writers.
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RE: fair notice
Posted by mw...@apache.org.
The link is to information that is a little old (June 2000). Is there a
more recent update that is disturbing you? Did this particular example ever
go anywhere? Patenting file formats might be disturbing, and I'm not an
expert, but I don't see how it would stop someone from reverse engineering a
"reader" or a "writer" of that format. Wouldn't it just mean that one
wouldn't be able to create a file format that is the same? I guess it
depends on how the patent is written, I suppose.
-Mark
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew C. Oliver [mailto:acoliver@apache.org]
> Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 4:57 PM
> To: POI Developers List; Jakarta General List
> Subject: fair notice
>
>
> I appologize to those of us who get this 2 times...
>
> This could later affect POI (http://jakarta.apache.org/poi), but does
> not currently: http://www.advogato.org/article/101.html
> Granted POI would be in "good company" with a wide berth of software and
> there would likely be a retributative effect that
> might backfire on Microsoft.
>
> I'll keep this brief, but the patenting of file formats could be a
> disturbing trend. I'll certainly keep an eye on this.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscribe@jakarta.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: general-help@jakarta.apache.org
>
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