On 20 Dec 2001, at 9:20, Michael Motyka wrote:
My thought is that it is not novel in any way save that it witholds root access from the owner of the machine.
I think it does a little more than that. "Deny the luser owner root access" is sufficient to explain how the luser is prevented from copying or modifying the trusted content, but it doesn't explain how "trusted" apps can access the data. In essence, deny the luser root access + all programs signed by microsoft automatically run as root. Neither piece alone would be innovative enough to be patentable, but maybe the combo is.
George
I think the combo is used regularly : e.g. version control logfiles that are not directly accessible to a user but the user can have ci/co access via applications that run with the correct permissions. A user may fuck up a version of the file but may not make things unrecoverable. We could get into a long discussion of the details of data source and sink types ( sockets, disk files, other devices ) but the basic principle is the id/permissions one. I just don't think the concept is particularly novel but I have no doubt it will be implemented and protected viciously. I use the word viciously because that is the only way to make DRM work and there is a great deal of money at stake. Mike