* Martin Schr?der <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2008-04-25 23:33:05]: > 2008/4/25 Deanna Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > You mean this part? > > > > "For those who would argue that important content might get > > irretrievably locked away in PDF format, I'll remind you that > > Xpdf is open source, and can be modified by end users (the GPL > > even allows this)." > > While an XPDF port with these patches is technically not distributed > but compiled by the user installing the port, any package of this > patched XPDF will be a modified version of XPDF and as such has to > follow the restrictions on distributing modified programs as specified > in section 2 of the GPL. Or you stop distributing XPDF packages. > > Best > Martin > >
You're out of touch with reality. The GPL is not being violated, or even streched for that matter! And whether or not the ports guys remove this drm crap, well, that's not your decision. The DRM is going away. It's absurd to have it. If you can view a document or whatnot, you can copy it. This is some kludge to try and make it harder to do that. Well, honestly, its not that hard. I could type out something by hand in the document or screenshot the images. This is _NOT_ security. It's stupidity. This no-copy crap makes no sense. I can't think of one reason why someone would want this. It's not going to protect the pdf author's work. Which is absurd in its own right. Protecting your work from the very people you are sharing it with. I thought the point of a "portable document format" was to disseminate information! You keep blabbering on about section 2 of the GPL. Well, we're not changing the license, and the program does not print a license clause on startup, so that only leaves part A: "You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change." I don't see what's more conducive to this than the nice unified diffs existing in the ports tree. The GPL is being followed. DRM is stupid. Oh wait, as a matter of fact, the two are ideologically opposed to each other! Get a grip. -- Travers Buda
