

Microsoft Patent Application for 'sudo'?  - mscarborough
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20091111094923390

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jws
It doesn't so much sound like sudo as:

    
    
      1) User attempts non-permitted action.
      2) Computer informs user about the policy problem.
      3) Computer displays list of accounts that are permitted to perform the action.
      4) User enters a password for one of the permitted accounts.
      5) Computer proceeds.
    

Trivial and obvious to ones skilled in the art, but not exactly sudo.

~~~
aristus
Except for the bit about listing accounts with the proper rights, this has
been a part of OSX for as long as I can remember. Certainly before April 2005.
Is it really that easy to patent a well-known process by adding a trivial
thing?

~~~
nopassrecover
Surely this "trivial thing" is what is being patented though. I mean let's say
hypothetically MS sues Apple, well Apple can say sure there are similarities
but we don't do the accounts bit.

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tptacek
Does someone know the backstory on Groklaw? From the domain name, I presume
I'm supposed to trust them about legal issues; that, for instance, they might
have some legal training.

If they do, it's not in evidence here. "Dude. It's sudo. With a GUI. For
dummies." Presumably, the author knows that it's valid to take an existing
idea and patent an improvement on it.

The author also wisecracks about the likelihood that Microsoft wants to
collect a "toll" on everyone else's use of sudo. Leaving aside the fact that
Microsoft _isn't patenting sudo_ , surely the author realizes that if
Microsoft wanted to patent troll the rest of the industry, they have a huge
arsenal of far better patents to do it with?

~~~
Corrado
Groklaw came to fame during the SCO crisis and offered great insight into the
workings of the trial. PJ is|was not a lawyer but a para-legal who tracked the
proceedings and converted all the legalese to human-speak.

~~~
tptacek
I don't see a byline on this post. Did PJ write it?

------
raintrees
I remember when one of my friends told me that Intel had a trademark on the
letter i. Of the alphabet. I grinned. Then he opened an Intel spec manual for
some chip or other, and right there on one of the opening pages was a
trademark statement for the lower case letter i.

------
naz
Looks like a patent for a novel user interface to sudo, not sudo itself.

~~~
hristov
You are right. I am not sure whether the claims as listed are novel and non-
obvious, but they are definately not patenting sudo.

In fact the interface they present is quite more complex than sudo. It looks
like it shows you a bunch of other accounts and asks you whether you would
like to log in as any of them.

~~~
thaumaturgy

        su - [username]

~~~
nailer
Switching to a named user you know and starting a login shell isn't the same
as presenting a list of possible users who have the privilege.

One possible hypothetical Unix equiv would be:

    
    
        command
        <failure message returns 'sudo -l' from everyone that does have access>
        <user interface to PAM-type app to prompt for credentials and 'sudo -l <command>' as one of the above users>
    

This doesn't exist as far as I know.

