Re: PDF modifications?

From: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu
Date: 05/17/02 

To: "Dawes, Rogan (ZA - Johannesburg)" <rdawes@deloitte.co.za>
From: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu
Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 08:50:59 -0400

On Fri, 17 May 2002 08:14:18 +0200, "Dawes, Rogan (ZA - Johannesburg)" said:

> If the PDF is openable and viewable, but is "protected", so that you can't
> select or print or annotate, that is easily bypassed with almost any
> non-Adobe PDF viewer, such as xpdf, which simply elects not to honour that
> setting in the PDF. The data is all there, because you can view it, it is
> simply a case of the software choosing to not let you select it. Find some
> software that doesn't honour those document settings, and you are on your
> way.
>
> As I recall, there was some discussion about this issue on the xpdf lists,
> or somewhere, about whether xpdf should honour the document requests or not,
> but it is really moot, since the source is there, just modify it to suit. I
> think that was the conclusion by the xpdf developers, so they simply didn't
> bother honouring the setting.

This must have been pre-DMCA. I would recommend that the xpdf
developers not visit the US, lest they be Skylarov'ed.

(The vuln-dev connection? Consider why Alan Cox censored a Linux kernel
changelog - but further discussion should probably be moved to a political
list. If you're in the US and of voting age, contact your Congresscreature
and tell them you want them to support Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) in his
attempts to fix the anti-circumvention clause of the DMCA).

We now return you to your regularly scheduled vuln-dev discussion, which
may be in violation of the anti-circumvention clause.... 

-- 
				Valdis Kletnieks
				Computer Systems Senior Engineer
				Virginia Tech

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