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From: trb@ima.UUCP (Andrew Tannenbaum)
Newsgroups: net.micro.68k,net.arch
Subject: Re: SUID Patent
Message-ID: <231@ima.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Oct-86 11:15:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: ima.231
Posted: Thu Oct  2 11:15:02 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Oct-86 05:44:25 EDT
References: <508@elmgate.UUCP> <64@mit-prep.ARPA> <15665@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <4794@ukma.uky.csnet> <404@vaxb.calgary.UUCP>
Reply-To: trb@ima.UUCP (Andrew Tannenbaum)
Organization: Interactive Systems, Boston
Lines: 27
Keywords: (SUID Patent)
Xref: watmath net.micro.68k:1914 net.arch:4025
Summary: speculation about Ritchie's patent

> hmmmm... I guess the patent office didn't know about JACCT on TOPS-10.
> 
> The first time I hears of the SUID I thought "what a nifty general
> way to do JACCT"...

It rubs me the wrong way to see the creators of UNIX being dragged
through the dirt for patenting SUID.  You aren't going to see Dennis
Ritchie saying "Oh yea?  I did too create the SUID idea."  I think SUID
was patented in an attempt to protect the UNIX kernel from theft - you
sell an illicit copy of the kernel, you violate patent law.

No one ever said that UNIX had any original ideas.  From the Ritchie
and Thompson "UNIX Timesharing System" paper (July 1974 CACM, July-Aug
1978 UNIX System BSTJ):  "The success of UNIX lies not so much in new
inventions but rather in the full exploitation of a carefully selected
set of fertile ideas, and especially in showing that they can be keys
to the implementation of a small yet powerful operating system."

In those days there were no software patents, so SUID was probably 
the easiest feature for which it was possible to create an analog in
hardware (which could be patented).  It was apparently original enough
to be patented.  That doesn't mean it was patented because Dennis
thought it was a brilliant idea.  I'm sure that his pride in being
involved in the creation of UNIX doesn't revolve around the SUID
patent.

	Andrew Tannenbaum   Interactive   Boston, MA   +1 617 247 1155