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Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 14:39:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
To: jbradford@dial.pipex.com
cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Hi is this critical??
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On Tue, 17 Sep 2002 jbradford@dial.pipex.com wrote:


> I want to file a patent on using hard disks as footballs.  I claim prior
> art, because I kicked a, (non-functional), disk across a room in front
> of the person who owned it, (with their permission), about five years
> ago, and they would verify that. 

Sorry, prior art exists. When iomega (the ZIP people) first shipped, they
brought out a unit to demo. They pulled the media out, tossed it against
the far wall, kicked it back, wiped it and ran from it. Then lifted the
front of the case about two inches and dropped it. 

In those days the "hard drives" were the same size, 10MB (sic), and the
heads would crash if a mouse farted in the next room. Bought a bunch, and
had very few problems.

> Incidently unlimited permission is granted to use disks containing only
> GNU/Linux software as footballs without royalties.  All other usage of
> disks as footballs will be considered on a per case basis. 

I would be inclined to allow this for Windows drives instead. They contain
no useful data.

-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  CTO, TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with little computers since 1979.

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