OK, so we know that Seagate dropped Automatic Acoustic Management ages ago (to my knowledge, the Barracuda ATA V — and not the SATA version — was the last Seagate drive to support it). But how come Western Digital stopped supporting it in more recent times? While the Caviar Blacks seem to inspire some confidence, it's annoying to be stuck with loud seeking.
EDIT: The answer is patent trolls, of course (Seagate was simply the first victim of those).
