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From: kevin@msa3b.UUCP (Kevin P. Kleinfelter)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,misc.legal,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Patent on UNIX set-UID
Message-ID: <1144@msa3b.UUCP>
Date: 2 Oct 89 21:11:14 GMT
Followup-To: misc.legal
Organization: Management Science America, Inc., Atlanta, GA
Lines: 10

I frequently read that UNIX's set-UID bit was one of the first software
patents.  What protection is claimed/provided under this patent?
Operating systems such as MINIX (functionally equivalent to SYS 7, but
not containing ONE line of actual AT&T code) provide the set-UID feature.
Are they violating the patent?  Should someone (Prentice-Hall in the
case of MINIX) be paying a patent fee for distributing the operating system
which uses this patented concept?  If not, why not?
-- 
Kevin Kleinfelter @ Management Science America, Inc (404) 239-2347
gatech!nanovx!msa3b!kevin