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Received: by minnie.vk1xwt.ampr.org with NNTP id AA7786 ; Tue, 26 Jan 93 07:00:20 EST Xref: sserve comp.org.eff.talk:11953 comp.unix.bsd:10393 comp.unix.wizards:28355 comp.org.usenix:3199 Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.wizards,comp.org.usenix Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!utcsri!geac!torsqnt!tmsoftware.ca!robohack!woods From: woods@robohack.UUCP (Greg A. Woods) Subject: Re: BSDI/USL Lawsuit -- More Bad News for Human Beings... Organization: Elegant Communications Inc. References: <BZS.93Jan16205935@world.std.com> <1jdibnINN52u@usenet.pa.dec.com> <1jftlvINNq62@chnews.intel.com> Message-ID: <1993Jan24.171352.708@robohack.UUCP> Date: Sun, 24 Jan 93 17:13:52 GMT Lines: 32 [Distribution was "inet"?!?!? I don't think so!] In article <1jftlvINNq62@chnews.intel.com> bhoughto@sedona.intel.com (Blair P. Houghton) writes: > 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... The complete patent (``Protection of Data File Contents''; US Patent 4,135,240; Jan. 16, 1979; Assigned to Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.; invented by Dennis M Ritchie) is printed in appendix L of ``UNIX System Security'', Wood & Kochan, 1985 [Hayden]. On the last page of the reprinted patent is a hand-written statement that says: Dedicated to the public 11/28/79 991 OG 11 Oddly enough, Kernighan and Pike place a footnote in ``The UNIX Programming Environment'' [1984] that says "The set-uid bit is patented by Dennis Ritchie." -- Greg A. Woods woods@robohack.UUCP, woods@Elegant.COM VE3TCP UniForum Canada & ECI +1 416 443-1734 [home] +1 416 362-XRSA [work] Toronto, Ontario; CANADA