Microsoft Patents sudo

Jimmy O Regan writes "Justin Mason (of SpamAssassin fame) has this blog entry: US Patent 6,775,781, filed by Microsoft, is a patent on the concept of 'a process configured to run under an administrative privilege level' which, based on authorization information 'in a data store', may perform actions at administrative privilege on behalf of a 'user process'."

Oh, yeah

[brilinux]

So SU me!

Probably redundant by now.

Re:Prior Art?

[cbr2702]

How? Everyone knows those Open Sores hippies stole everything anyways.

Thats funny.

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought crackers would have had the patent for sudo on Microsoft products long ago. You would have thought it would be easy for Microsoft to see that prior art.

Quick! Send in your prior art!

[nonregistered]

man sudo >/dev/uspto

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

What Next?

[Kandel]

US Patent 6,775,786 : Filed by Microsoft : The concept of clicking a mouse button to perform a task.
Closely followed by...
US Patent 6,775,787 : Filed by Microsoft : The concept of intercourse to procreate.

Seriously, what is the world coming to. Corporates such as Microsoft should not be allowed to patent bogus things like this.
This is truly Capitalism at it's worst...what power have the US given these people!?

Re:Quick! Send in your prior art!

[Anonymous Coward]

A quick check reveals that it's a symbolic link to /dev/null. Hmm...

Thats it.

[0racle]

I'm not going to put it off anymore, I have an amazing idea and I'm off to patent it. Its a web based front end for system updates, see, it scans the system to determine what updates are needed, then only presents them to the user in such a way that they can see what updates are critical and which are just general enhancements. I'm going to make a mint.

the only sudo you need

[Anonymous Coward]

> sudo rm -Rf windows

Re:"in a data store"

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I always su root before using sudo so that I can run things as root.

Re:Quick! Send in your prior art!

[Lehk228]

rm -rf /dev/uspto

not really Prior Art, but

[hndrcks]

" the concept of 'a process configured to run under an administrative privilege level' which, based on authorization information 'in a data store', may perform actions at administrative privilege on behalf of a 'user process'."

Hell, that sounds like Klez! [symantec.com]

Re:Code Red is Prior Art as Well

[ehack]

Seeong that the US has military and economic power to boot, we pass the laws that the US requests, and hope to stay alive. And of course the US passes the laws that Microsoft requests :)

Let me suggest a name for this product.....

[Roskolnikov]

msudo

Re:Su do me!

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/hdd1 /mnt/win1
Instant patent violation!

Actually, double patent violation: FAT and sudo.

Now pull down your pants, bend over and prepare to meet my lawyers.

-- Signed: Bill Gates

Not really a patent

[commodoresloat]

It's a pseudo-patent.

thanks, I'll be here all week....

Exploits.

[Daleks]

I think MS has prior art on this one. Their programs have been executing at a higher than normal privilage level for awhile.

Re:Oh, yeah

[so sue mee]

No! So Sue Mee

Re:Quick! Send in your prior art!

[hpavc]

perhaps they could ...

upsto.gov# ntpdate -b pool.ntp.org ... and get with the times.

Re:Proof of concept?

[chamblah]

M$ [penny-arcade.com]

Re:Oh, yeah

[SoSueMe]

yEs?

Patent Sex

[suwain_2]

A friend and I resolved a while back that we should file a patent for A protocol for expansion of the human race, and essentially describe the process of sexual intercourse in extremely vague terms.

After taking over all the porn sites in the world, we could start suing parents across the nation.

In fact, you should really just give me $699 today if you plan on having sex any time soon. The license is good for a whole year! (But only for one partner.)

Re:A brief history of SUDO

[Anonymous Coward]

I vote for "10 yards and loss of down" as the penalty.

And tomorrow

[HangingChad]

MSFT intends to patent a switch or button on the front or side of the machine that causes power to be restored to the machine if it is not currently operational and to cut off the power if the machine is operational

And people say MSFT doesn't invest in R&D. Brilliant!

Re:Quick! Send in your prior art!

[ArbitraryConstant]

No, I doubt you have the permissions for that.

sudo rm -rf /dev/uspto

Re:Quick! Send in your prior art!

[FooAtWFU]

If only. It's more like:
cat /dev/urandom > /dev/uspto

ATTN: SCO :)

[macmaniac]

Perhaps, if the SCO actually has the IP rights it thinks it has, this might almost be a worthy lawsuit :) Then again, then I wouldn't want either side to win....

Re:perhaps my evil genius hat isn't working

[cbiltcliffe]

I get the feeling more and more that Microsoft is doing something like this:

Manager 1: Wow! They accepted that patent! The USPTO is crazy! Even with a year or so of prior art!

Manager 2: Yeah, no kidding!

Manager 1: Let's try this one next. It's got 3 years prior art.

Manager 2: Wow! They accepted that one too! What morons!

Manager 1: Man...let's see just how crazy we can get here...let's go with 20 years prior art, and see if the dopes accept it!

Manager 2: LOL HAHA ROFLMAO! They took it! What planet do these guys live on?!?!

Re:Quick! Send in your prior art!

[hawkeyeMI]

user@host$ diff /dev/urandom /dev/uspto

user@host$

Re:perhaps my evil genius hat isn't working

[hawaiian717]

A patent on $ or # as a prompt?

It would probably read more like:

An indication by which a computer system indicates that it is ready for arbitrary input from the user.

But specifically, they'd be patenting C:\> .

Re:Patent Sex

[hawkeyeMI]

You're not going to make much money that way on /.

Re:perhaps my evil genius hat isn't working

[hawkeyeMI]

More like this:

M1: Alright, pay up.

M2: I can't believe this. (pays)

M3: Hey guys, 3 to 1 odds I don't get the patent on the 'long rectangular button which inserts a space character when pressed'. Who's in?

M1: $50 you don't get it.

M2: $200 for.

Re:Patent on excrement expulsion

[BigDish]

Sorry, SCO Already has a patent on that

If this holds...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to finally patent my wheel invention: method of locomotion friction reduction by way of a continuous radial surface concentric about an axis of rotation containing a bearing system, rigid support structure, solid or pneumatic contact surface, and verticle axis directional control attachment mechanism.

Got the idea when a guy dropped a cheese and it rolled down a hill. If he had been on one of my wheels, he could have caught up with his cheese.

Re:perhaps my evil genius hat isn't working

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft: hello I want to fill a patent request...

Patent office employee: ok, granted!

Microsoft: ...but don't you first want to...

Patent office employee: NO NO NO I said granted!!

Microsoft: ...well but there's this thing called prior...

Patent office employee: I SAID GRANTED!!

Microsoft: yeah but there was another pate...

Patent oggice employee: KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!!! GRANTED YOU BIG-POCKET COMPANY!!!

Re:Quick! Send in your prior art!

[roman_mir]

the parent found a special case where infinite number of monkeys on infinite number of typewriters appeared to be working for the uspto.

Re:Quick! Send in your prior art!

[thephotoman]

My vote's for one of the following:

$ sudo apt-get upgrade upsto.gov

or

$ sudo yum update upsto.gov

Re:Prior Art?

[BroncoInCalifornia]

Those who do not copy Unix are destined to reinvent it.

Re:perhaps my evil genius hat isn't working

[bechthros]

please don't give them any ideas...

Re:Thats it.

[NetCow]

You're a bit too late. Apple got a patent on that one :)

Re:Prior Art?

[qtp]

Those who do not copy Unix are destined to reinvent it

badly.

Re:Not really a patent

[Afrosheen]

Makes sense to me. Since what it does is let the user do what the admin can, superuser do = sudo.

But pronounced the other way is more appropriate in this context. Sue = Dough.

Re:Prior Art?

[mbowles]

Shouldn't that be, "Those who do not copy Unix are destined to patent it?"

Re:Not really a patent

[Proc6]

If only that were true. I think we all know it's pronounced "soo-doo" because that sounds like "Sulu" from Star Trek.

Damn trekkies everywhere.

Re:maybe not so easy

[CatGrep]

you might actually get this patent killed in the process.

Would that be in the administrative process or in the user process?

killall sudo_patent

Re:Prior Art?

[Anonymous Coward]

It is humanly impossible for a government office to realistically assess all of human knowledge for prior art. To say otherwise is dishonest.

They could simply post on /.

The best thing to do...

[Nermal6693]

stevejobs% sudo rm -rf * Microsoft

Re:Prior Art?

[phrostie]

if it is not realistic then they have no business claiming the authority.

seriously, what is the percentage of invalid patents claimed. what would happen to the medical field if we gave them the out of saying, "well there were just too many organs and slimmy squishy things to find the appendix in time"

perhaps this is the front that needs to be taken to get software patents reformed.

Re:Prior Art?

[ArsonSmith]

SCO just patented a program that lets a super user run applications as you.

its called
suyou