Hi, Okular maintainer (upstream, and cooperating in Debian) speaking here. > I just downloaded a PDF, and tried to copy and paste a bit of text > from it. I used the selection tool, and Okular offered to speak it to > me, but said "Copy forbidden by DRM." 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. > pdftotext was able to convert the entire file to text format in an > instant. Most probably pdftotext just ignores user permissions. > So what I want to know is: why are people putting code into Debian > that limits our freedom? Why are people putting such code into KDE? If you feel limited in "your freedom", then go complaining about Adobe and the ISO 32000, aka the standardization of the PDF format, because, in case you don't know, those permissions are features of the PDF format, nothing Okular enforces on its own. And given that it is a feature of a file format just like annotations or sounds, people could use it (for example in corporate environments to avoid documents or parts of them being leaked or so). > And can we please patch it to stop that? Option is there, you have also the freedom to use it. > Indeed, the program is clearly broken by design and needs to be fixed. The program is just following a file format in that regard AND providing the option to not to, so nothing to be fixed. -- Pino Toscano
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