From: Matthias Fuchs <matthias.fuchs@esd.eu>
To: linux-mtd@lists.infradead.org
Subject: patented FTL format
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:32:34 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <200909301732.35277.matthias.fuchs@esd.eu> (raw)
Hi,
I found this notice in drivers/mtd/ftl.c:
LEGAL NOTE: The FTL format is patented by M-Systems. They have
granted a license for its use with PCMCIA devices:
"M-Systems grants a royalty-free, non-exclusive license under
any presently existing M-Systems intellectual property rights
necessary for the design and development of FTL-compatible
drivers, file systems and utilities using the data formats with
PCMCIA PC Cards as described in the PCMCIA Flash Translation
Layer (FTL) Specification."
Use of the FTL format for non-PCMCIA applications may be an
infringement of these patents. For additional information,
contact M-Systems (http://www.m-sys.com) directly.
Can anybody tell me what exactly is patended here? The general implementation
of a translation layer to use non-NAND filesystems on top of NAND?
Or a specific format (as stated) - meaning a data layout - on how or where
to store information on a NAND flash?
Or with other words, does a translation layer (we would also call it differently)
that allows using things like ext3 on a bare NAND chip conflict with any patents?
This is not a technical question about how this could be implemented.
Matthias
next reply other threads:[~2009-09-30 15:36 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2009-09-30 15:32 Matthias Fuchs [this message]
2009-09-30 17:28 ` patented FTL format David Brown
2009-10-01 9:23 ` Matthias Fuchs
2009-10-01 10:30 ` Wolfram Sang
2009-10-06 13:41 ` Matthias Fuchs
2009-10-06 13:46 ` Wolfram Sang
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=200909301732.35277.matthias.fuchs@esd.eu \
--to=matthias.fuchs@esd.eu \
--cc=linux-mtd@lists.infradead.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.