IANAL, but It is now okay to do encryption for the most part with open
source software. The law now allows a special exemption for open source
code. While there are quirks, I doubt implementing the Excel encryption
would excite those quirks. In the past we stayed out of it because we
lacked the infrastructure to deal with silly export laws. It would
still be wise for US and non-US commiters to not "discuss" things about
encryption together. And write your congressman about how STUPID US
encryption laws still are (do you REALLY think we EVER had a monopoly
here) and how they do nothing more than HURT business in the US and "our
trading partners". Anyhow I remove my long standing veto here and
welcome contributions in this area.
Presently SuperLink has no plans to do anything here because we have no
funding for it and I find it unlikely that our average client will use
such feature (we tend to have more OEM rather than IT) so this will have
to be a community contribution more than likely. Lastly, IIRC this is
silly encryption not serious stuff anyhow so if you think it protects
your data then google for "crack password protected excel file" and see
if you still think that when you are done. I know that security in this
industry is more the sad state of perception vs reality, but it doesn't
mean I can't try to convince people that real security is more than
obfuscation. (The existence of POI should prove that there are people
in this world who read enough hex dumps to figure out your "security
through obscurity" scheme).
... okay done with my soap box...lets not start a debating club ;-)
-Andy
--
Andrew C. Oliver
SuperLink Software, Inc.
Java to Excel using POI
http://www.superlinksoftware.com/services/poi
Commercial support including features added/implemented, bugs fixed.
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