ZDnet features an article about the had patent at AltNet http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5534087.html . Apparantly this issue plays already for some time, now the p2p companies are threatened, becuase they use hashing to recognize files.
As far as I know hasing is a very old technique used to quickly look up information. The use of hashing always requires an idnetity check, because the lookup is not unique (mapping a very big amount of possibilities on a limited amount of entries). This is a fast and robust way of finding information, if the right hashing function is used. How can this type of fundamental knowledge be patented? I am afraid this is again an example of a total failure of the current patent system. Unfortunately these ridiculous examples endanger smaller companies, open software activities amd innovation in general. kind regards, Gerrit -- Praktijk voor Psychosociale therapie Lia Charité <www.liacharite.nl> -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
