Topic: Microsoft Patents Sudo?!!

[sam]

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20091111094923390

[Simon]

Doesn't that beg the question, why didn't Unix patent it first?

[sam]

true, but I guess it must be under some form of public usage license...

[topquark]

Well their patent will never hold up as the orig author/inventor can claim prior art on the main part of sudo's function (unless there is some very unique bit that they've added and have patented that). 

[Simon]

It will be interesting to see how it develops.

[sam]

Well their patent will never hold up as the orig author/inventor can claim prior art on the main part of sudo's function (unless there is some very unique bit that they've added and have patented that). 

yeah... I guess they are probably patenting some addons - which could have interesting implications - especially given the original work was GPL or whatever... not sure how patents work when its modification to existing work.