From: mike 


More innovation from the boys in Redmond...

http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com/2007/05/did-microsoft-just-patent-sud
o.html

===
Did Microsoft just patent sudo?

Holy crap, I think they did. Here's the patent for UAC:

>>
A computer such as a network appliance executes an administrative security
process configured to run under an administrative privilege level. Having
an administrative privilege level, the administrative security process can
initiate administrative functions in an operating system function library.
A user process executing under a non-administrative privilege level can
initiate a particular administrative function that the process would not
otherwise be able to initiate by requesting that the administrative
security process initiate the function. In response to a request to
initiate a particular function from a process with a non-administrative
privilege level, the administrative security process determines whether the
requesting process is authorized to initiate the particular administrative
function based on information accessed in a data store. If the requesting
process is authorized, the administrative security process initiates the
particular administrative function. In this manner, the administrative
security process facilitates access to specific administrative functions
for a user process having a privilege level that does not permit the user
process to access the administrative functions.
>>


Patent 6775781
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=
%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6775781.PN.&OS=PN/6775781&RS=PN
/6775781


Does that sound like sudo to you? Does to me. If you look at sudo's
manpage, you'll find a link to this site: The History of Sudo.
http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/history.html
What can this site tell us? Plenty. For instance,

>>
Sudo was first conceived and implemented by Bob Coggeshall and Cliff
Spencer around 1980 at the Department of Computer Science at SUNY/Buffalo.
It ran on a VAX-11/750 running 4.1BSD. An updated version, credited to Phil
Betchel, Cliff Spencer, Gretchen Phillips, John LoVerso and Don Gworek, was
posted to the net.sources newsgroup in December of 1985.
>>

1985, huh? And when did this Microsoft patent happen? It was filed in 2000.
Well gee, that doesn't make sense. How'd they get the patent? It certainly
falls under the category of "obvious" if there's prior art such
as sudo.

What makes this whole thing funny, though, is something I saw a couple days
ago. Head over to Builder-AU and listen to Peter Watson from Microsoft. He
says,

>>
User Account Control is a great idea and strategically a direction that
sort of all operating systems and all technology should be heading down
>>

Excuse me? Does he really believe this is all Microsoft's great new idea?

In the end, this seems like a patent that Microsoft will hold up and say
"we have a patent and Linux is violating it!" They won't ever sue
on it though (just leave the threat hanging to scare away potential users),
because then they could have the patent revoked. It's better for them to
just wave it around.
===

  /m

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5