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Re: PDF is blocked for printing, etc. OK for acroread (it behaves as expected), but KPDF allows me to print it, even if it is protected! Why?



Johannes Wiedersich wrote:
> Merciadri Luca wrote:
> > Johannes Wiedersich wrote:
> >> Why would an
> >> honest soul ever allow information to be read, but not printed?
> >>   
> > To maintain honesty? An honest soul (i.e. me, here) has to send some
> > data to some dishonest person.
>
> The problem is: either you give data to some dishonest person or you
> don't give that data to some dishonest person. Tertium non datur.
Yes, but there are some nuances. Let's take my example: how would you
have done this? You need to transmit the document, but the receivers are
sufficiently dishonest to print it and to claim they are the authors.
>
> >> Even with acroread it is possible to print screenshots of the
> documents.
> >> Might be a pain to reconstruct a multipage document, but not
> impossible.
> >>   
> > I know, and we all know this. But this needs some determination, because
> > it needs some time. And when such problems arise, one often thinks (or
> > should, at least, think) `Do I really need to copy this using that
> > painful way, to bypass some limitation which is actually imposed to me
> > by an honest person?' This is another aspect of security. There are the
> > technical means, and all the infringements which can be done. But,
> > sometimes, `le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle.'
>
> FWIW, if you'd like to rely on such a scheme for security by obstacles,
> you'd have to use something else than pdf. pdf's scheme is broken.
> That's all.
And what do you advice?
>
> The reason that it is broken for pdfs is that the specifications for pdf
> are freely available, and thus alternative pdf readers have been
> developed. Your scheme would require closed specifications and closed
> software to work. This list, however, is all about free software.
Yes, but if I had to use closed specs. with closed softwares, I would
have to pay, and what about paying for your own rights??

-- 
Merciadri Luca
See http://www.student.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~merciadri/
I use PGP. If there is an incompatibility problem with your mail
client, please contact me.




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