MS FAT

Microsoft will soon start charging manufacturers of flash memory cards 25¢/unit royalties for use of the FAT system. Yes, Microsoft really create FAT (in 1976) and holds the patents, but it has never charged royalties for its use before. This reminds me of the time years ago when some corporation (I don't remember which one) who held the patent for some critical portion of the GIF image format decided to charge royalties. Back then GIF was the dominant image format on the web, and it's still used a lot today, but most images you see are JPEG, not GIF, now.