Andrei Popov wrote:
Hello Helge,
Friday, December 2, 2005, 12:00:06 PM, you wrote:
On linux, use xpdf which couldn't care less about permissions. I use
it to copy/paste stuff out of pdf's that are protected against
copying with acrobat.
Having "copy protection" enforced by the client is such a joke,
For most technically unsavvy users it's not a joke, I'm afraid =)
It is in this particular case. No "hack" needed, just use xpdf
for reading your pdfs. The unsavy tends to get their linux
installed by vendor or some standard distro cd. Chances
are that they have xpdf then, perhaps as the default pdf viewer even.
just use a client that don't implement it. Anyway, there is no way
to simultaneously allow reading and prevent copying.
There's no way to simultaneously enable SCREEN-reading/accessibility
AND disable copying, if this is what you meant =)
What I meant, yes. If the software can get at the content
so as to display it, then the software may decide to stick it
in the paste buffer as well. There is nothing the pdf file
format can do about that.
You can disable
everything, including copying, but the document WILL be available for
reading. This, naturally, might only apply to compliant viewers, such
as Acrobat.
Anyway, yeah, I know this "just use xpdf or whatever" trick too.
But isn't a good pdf viewer supposed to implement the pdf standard to
the full? Honor permissions, allow form-filling, text-copying and
encryption? I think yes.
A good pdf viewer should do whatever the _user_ wants it to.
Sure, having form filling in xpdf would be nice. But honoring
the no-copying bit? Not what I, as a user, want. If I don't
want to copy text out of a pdf, then I don't do it! Therefore, it
is no use supporting this. (Users who enjoy being prevented from
copying have the option of using acrobat.) And for the cases where copy
protection is on "by default/by mistake/by company standard" or whatever,
it is nice that the software doesn't support it.
Some writers might like the "copy protection", but it is a lost cause.
Open-source pdf readers exists, so I can always turn that off again
even if xpdf should implement it. (And then I can distribute
this program for the benefit of the technical unsavy . . .)
Helge Hafting
