Return to BSD News archive
Received: by minnie.vk1xwt.ampr.org with NNTP
id AA7248 ; Mon, 18 Jan 93 10:50:41 EST
Xref: sserve comp.org.eff.talk:11749 comp.unix.bsd:10187 comp.unix.wizards:28272 comp.org.usenix:3135
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.wizards,comp.org.usenix
Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!constellation!mimbres.cs.unm.edu!ncar!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!batcomputer!cornell!rochester!rit!wrc
From: wrc@cs.rit.edu (Warren R Carithers)
Subject: Re: BSDI/USL Lawsuit -- More Bad News for Human Beings...
Message-ID: <1993Jan19.215612.3662@cs.rit.edu>
Sender: news@cs.rit.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: vienna
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
References: <1ja6bgINNh23@chnews.intel.com> <BZS.93Jan16205935@world.std.com> <1jdibnINN52u@usenet.pa.dec.com> <1jftlvINNq62@chnews.intel.com>
Distribution: inet
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1993 21:56:12 GMT
Lines: 35
In article <1jftlvINNq62@chnews.intel.com>, bhoughto@sedona.intel.com (Blair P. Houghton) writes:
|> In article <1jdibnINN52u@usenet.pa.dec.com> ed@pa.dec.com writes:
|> >[Houghton]
|> >> THEY'LL NEVER GET THE SETUID-BIT!!! NEVER!!!
|> >> (They can't. It's PD. Thanks, Dennis. :-))
|> >
|> >If by "PD" you mean "Public Domain," then no, it's not. The set-uid
|>
|> Yes, it is. Ritchie placed it there, after the patent was
|> granted. Or so goes the version of the story I've seen:
|> somewhere there's a copy of the patent documents with his
|> signature and the handwritten statement "placed in the
|> public domain, <date>".
|>
|> ...I just checked Bach, Leffler, and the Jargon file;
|> Thompson&Pike of course has the footnote, but it doesn't
|> mention the PD-ness; I must've seen it in a Usenet posting;
|> that's sort of like hearsay evidence from Richard Nixon...
For those who have the urge to check it out, a copy of the patent can be
found in Wood and Kochan, "UNIX System Security", Copyright 1985 by Pipeline
Associates Inc., printed by Hayden books. It's in Appendix L, pp. 268-275;
on page 275 is reproduced the handwritten
"Dedicated to the public
11/28/79
991 OG 11"
(crudely reproduced here). It makes rather interesting reading, especially
if you've never seen a patent document before.
--
Warren R. Carithers, RIT Department of Computer Science, Rochester NY 14623-0887
Internet: wrc@cs.rit.edu, wrcics@ultb.isc.rit.edu (716) 475-2288
UUCP: {allegra,rutgers}!rochester!rit!wrc FAX (716) 475-7100