mo@seismo.UUCP (02/17/87)
Dennis Ritchie once upon a time claimed that AT&T had ceded the patent to the public domain so there would be no restrictions upon its use. Since others have been allowed to use it without restriction, they would be on thin ice to try and enforce it now since they didn't try to enforce it then. -Mike
hollaar@utah-cs.UUCP (02/18/87)
United States Patent 4,135,240 ("Protection of Data File Contents") was issued
to Dennis Richie on January 16, 1979, and assigned by him (probably for the
infamous "patent dollar") to Bell Labs. It indeed prevents anyone from using
the suid bit, or anything else resembling the suid bit that matches any of the
four claims used in the patent, without permission of Bell Labs.
However, the patent was "dedicated to the public" on November 28, 1979, so
anyone can now use the suid bit without special license or permission of Bell
Labs. (See the Patent Office Official Gazette, 991 OG 11.) Essentially, it's
patented, but everybody has a no-cost license.ast@botter.UUCP (02/18/87)
In article <43103@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV> mo@seismo.CSS.GOV (Mike O'Dell) writes: >Dennis Ritchie once upon a time claimed that AT&T had ceded the >patent to the public domain so there would be no restrictions >upon its use. I heard the same story from a person even more authoritative than Dennis (in a certain abstract sense)--Otis Wilson, AT&T's patent licensing manager. Of course they could change their minds now, but it is not clear if one can get away with suddenly enforcing something that one previously didn't care much about. Does anyone know how Idris, Coherent, SOL, and various other UNIX clones have dealt with this issue in the past? Andy Tanenbaum