[cap-talk] "ambient authority" on wiki.erights.org

[Karp, Alan H]

Rob Meijer wrote:
> >
> > I have read and write permission to two files, A and B.  Nobody else has
> > permission to read or write these files.  When I say copy(A,B), I am not
> > designating which of my rights to use for each argument.  The rights are
> > not shared, implicitly or otherwise, but they are ambient.
> 
> If A and B are names, than your rights will need to shared implicitly
> between you and copy in order for copy to succeed, you use a name as only
> way to designate the objects to what you and copy share authority, that is
> therefore ambient.
>
Even if copy is a method running in the program that invoked it, the authorities are ambient.

________________________
Alan Karp
Principal Scientist
Virus Safe Computing Initiative
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
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(650) 857-3967, fax (650) 857-7029
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Alan_Karp