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Article #74034Re: Patent on a standard-byte order for intermachine communication
From: Rich Wales
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1991 17:48
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1991 17:48
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1835 bytes
In article <gnusenet9107131607.AA14833@mole.gnu.ai.mit.edu> rms@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Richard Stallman) writes: US patent number 4,956,809 covers using a single standard byte ordering for transfer of data between machines whose normal byte ordering is different. Unless invalidated (by prior art from mid-1982 or earlier), this patent prohibits the principal means for transfering data between disparate types of computer systems. For example, Sun is now being faced with demands to pay royal- ties for NFS, which uses this method. This directly threatens the GNU operating system, since we were planning to support NFS. (It also threatens BSD.) Haven't TCP and IP been using the concept of a single standard byte ordering for multi-byte integer data for years? The RFC's describing TCP and IP date back to at least 1981. -- Rich Wales <wales@CS.UCLA.EDU> // UCLA Computer Science Department 3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024-1596 // +1 (213) 825-5683
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X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 1025b4,9a4c815047ed049b X-Google-Attributes: gid1025b4,public X-Google-Thread: 1038e3,879884a1a1cefa91 X-Google-Attributes: gid1038e3,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1991-07-15 12:42:34 PST Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucla-cs!valeria.cs.ucla.edu!wales From: wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,misc.legal Subject: Re: Patent on a standard-byte order for intermachine communication Message-ID: <1991Jul15.174830.15977@cs.ucla.edu> Date: 15 Jul 91 17:48:30 GMT References: <gnusenet9107131607.AA14833@mole.gnu.ai.mit.edu> Sender: usenet@cs.ucla.edu (Mr. News Himself) Reply-To: wales@CS.UCLA.EDU (Rich Wales) Organization: UCLA CS Department, Los Angeles Lines: 23 Nntp-Posting-Host: valeria.cs.ucla.edu