I Sense Some Ligitation...

[supermario0x40]

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7634770.html

Today on one of my random Google tangents I stumbled on this patent, which was approved less than a month ago. It was submitted in 2003, so I'm not sure if its holder (Steve Roth, who I hadn't heard of but apparently worked at HP at some point) plans on asserting it or if he even can. It looks like it covers every single corner of the whole concept of kernel modules, so naturally, I got a little nervous - will I ever be able to run modprobe again? *gasp*
Then again, I'm not very knowledgeable in the subject...

Any thoughts?

 

[mindlord]

I dont' think you read it carefully enough. He's patenting a specific process where by when updating a kernel in real time the currently loaded modules are checked for incompatibility and unloaded automatically to prevent the kernel from panicking. He's not patenting the idea of kernel modules in and of themselves.

 

[senquack]

The US patent system makes me want to emmigrate!

 

[supermario0x40]

I dont' think you read it carefully enough. He's patenting a specific process where by when updating a kernel in real time the currently loaded modules are checked for incompatibility and unloaded automatically to prevent the kernel from panicking. He's not patenting the idea of kernel modules in and of themselves.

Me and my reading things too quickly... :wacko: