At any rate, two standout items this week are the patenting of a particular flavor of the “sudo” UNIX command by Microsoft, and the MPAA-forced shutdown of a municipal WiFi network over one illegal download.

The Microsoft patent story was widely published earlier this week, due to initial concerns over the far-reaching impact of such a patent claim. Further investigation showed that MS only received the patent rights to their particular user-rights elevation implementation – User Account Control.

The second article, is frankly, crazy… Or at least illustrates the power Big Media has over ISPs as they exist today.  And while I understand that the municipal service used a routed VPN to allow multiple users access via one network address, and thus that one address drew the ire of the MPAA – I do not understand how the MPAA can abide by punishing hundreds of potential users over the actions of one individual. Especially given that, at least in Europe, access to the Internet is quickly becoming regarded a fundamental right.

Just something to chew over for the weekend. We’ll be back next week with with more legal minutiae.