[Nix-dev] Re: Proposal for hydra with librsync

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

Jeff Johnson <n3npq at mac.com> writes:

>>> librsync is a zombie project. which is a shame, Martin Pool is a
>>> really smart guy, just that the rsync protocol is patent encumbered
>>> many years now.
>> 
>> I did not know about the patent problems.
>> 
>
> The issues are quite old. But in 1998 it was known that ~87%
> of the bandwidth needed for displaying web pages could be saved
> with an rsync-like protocol implemented in browsers. You would
> think that saving 87% of the bandwidth used displaying web pages
> would be a useful implementation. The implementation has never
> happened because of the patent. Sadly the patent has never
> produced a useful product afaik.

I didn’t about the issue, but I found a summary:

  http://ozlabs.org/~rusty/rproxy.html

There’s a transcription of a talk by Tridgell where he briefly mentions
the patent issue:

  http://olstrans.sourceforge.net/release/OLS2000-rsync/OLS2000-rsync.html

Thanks,
Ludo’.