Re: Bug#531221: okular: Arbitrarily enforces DRM
On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 09:40:20PM -0500, John Goerzen wrote:
> Luis Felipe Tabera wrote:
> > On Sábado, 30 de Mayo de 2009 18:38:40 Marco d'Itri escribió:
> >> On May 31, Pino Toscano <pino@kde.org> wrote:
> >>> This means the author of the PDF set that users shouldn't (in their will)
> >>> copy the text from their PDF.
> >>> You can disable the usage of document permissions by disabling the
> >>> related option from the preferences.
> >> It's not clear to me why this should not be the default, but anyway I
> >> think that the interface could be improved by mentioning this in the
> >> error dialog.
> >
> > Well, the default should always be to follow the specification of PDF, even if
> > there are parts of it that we do not like.
>
> Quite false. Specifications and standards are there to improve
> compatibility between different implementations. You are hurting
> compatibility with nothing by not going to the effort to write
> copy-blocking code. You are hurting compatibility by writing it.
>
> If this "feature" is there, it should:
>
> a) be disabled by default, so people can copy maximally without issue;
>
> b) the error message should clearly state how to disable it.
Let's be realistic, from the moment the functionality exists, it doesn't
make _any_ sense to either of those, as everybody would end up disabling
it somewhen.
Both these propositions make the "feature" pointless. The only sensible
options is to dump it entirely, as you are suggesting below.
> I would go so far as to propose patching it out of Okular entirely.
> Debian should not be a tool to support software restrictions like this.
Now, the problem is that under some stupid laws in some countries,
circumventing DRM is a crime... welcome in the real sucky world.
Mike
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