Roberto C. Sánchez <roberto@connexer.com> writes: > In reality, what I am having trouble with is, how these two > scenarios are different: > > 1. Someone produces a PDF with certain DRM restrictions. The user > decides that he does not like the restrictions and so looks to > circumvent them. > > 2. A user or sysadmin produces a file and removes certain access (read > and/or write) for other users. The user decides that he does not like > the restrictions and so looks to circumvent them. > > If people are arguing that Debian should assist the user in the first > case, then why is the same not also true in the second case? The person who should be in control of the computer (e.g. the owner, or administrator, or whatever) is the person whose interests should be served by the operating system. They are the authority on what restrictions are to be imposed or circumvented. In the case of someone who *doesn't* have authority over the computer setting a “cripple this document” flag, the user who does have that authority gets to decide whether that restriction is obeyed. In the case of someone who *does* have that authority setting a permission bit, that permission should be obeyed — but only within the confines of that computer of course. A closer analogy might be: file permissions set by the authority on one computer will be honoured, restricting the operation of programs accordingly. Those permission settings will even be duplicated into a tarball; but if that tarball is transported to a different computer with a different user in authority, the extracted files should not be subject to any permissions restrictions that user doesn't want obeyed. > I agree with Sune that such disagreements are best handled between the > user and the producer of the file. I disagree. The operating system should treat the operating system's administrator as the authority, and should obey that user's wishes even if those wishes contradict incoming data. Observance of the law is up to the human who has direct authority over the machine, and if they want to break the law the machine should not get in their way. That person's authority over the operation of the machine should not be subvertible by instructions from some outside entity. -- \ “… one of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was | `\ that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful | _o__) termination of their C programs.” —Robert Firth | Ben Finney
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