Re: Affecting Institutional Change (Yeah Right)
On Sat, May 12, 2007 at 08:53:49PM -0500, John Hasler wrote:
> Amy writes:
> > By "decoders" I mean things like antiword that remove all the nasty
> > binary blobs and leave the ASCII text.
>
> Format converters.
>
> > Does the new version of M$-Word include some sort of code for embedding
> > movies now?
>
> Probably, but that's irrelevant.
>
> > On what level is that even necessary or even desirable?
>
> When has that ever stopped Microsoft from adding a "feature"?
>
> > Can I or can I not (reasonably) depend on such software's (antiword and
> > the like) remaining legal?
>
> Yes, of course you can.
But if the M$ program somehow encrypts its documents so that is the only
program that can read it, then I don't think *any* format converter will
help you.
I can see M$ justifying this by implying that it is a "security measure"
to make sure it doesn't carry any malicious software, and getting away
with it.
This would be the same mechanism you use to encrypt/sign your emails
with gpg or pgp but instead of the control being in the user's hands it
is the OS doing the encrypting/signing for you. You are now safe from
evil software so you can relax with your security minded OS.
That type of philosophy pisses me off. People who don't know any better
will think its a good thing. They won't realise their computer is
*really* controlling them and not the other way round.
--
Chris.
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