internetnews.com: A FAT Licensing Uproar?

“Microsoft’s recent decision to pursue a royalty-bearing
licensing strategy, which includes its internally developed FAT
Allocation Table (FAT) file system, is stirring up new theories in
the technology world.

“Where many industry watchers applauded the move by the world’s
largest software company to open up its intellectual property,
others saw it as a move to put a stumbling block in the way of
Linux, the open source operating system whose growth threatens the
dominance of Windows.

“Readers at popular online forum Slashdot.org weighed in with
the claim that the licensing policy was the beginning of
Microsoft’s efforts to shut down Linux. The newly-launched Public
Patent Foundation is urging the United States Patent and Trademark
Office to re-examine what it claims are ‘wrongly issued’ patents,
primarily in response to Microsoft’s new IP policy…”

Complete
Story