[Before we start, I'm not trying to stand on either side of the fence
here, merely provide a balanced viewpoint]
On Sat, 21 Jul 2001, Jon Masters wrote:
> > Remember your system uses Adobe PostScript to print, even if it is
> > actually going through ghostview.
Not enough people would even think of doing that. Imagine the whole world
of document production, management and distribution trying to go
immediately to a non-Adobe-based system. Impossible.
Do you ever read books, magazines, comics, newspapers; watch TV adverts,
look at billboards, watch the titles on any sort of moving media, find
South Park rip-roaringly funny? Then hey, stop it now. You're just lining
the pockets of Adobe.
> That's not affecting their pockets and postscript is actually a pretty
> good thing - what we should do is, as you say, hit them where it hurts.
And where is that, exactly? It's financial. We (as a community) are so
utterly insignificant to Adobe that they probably wouldn't even notice if
we all stopped using their products. If (like I outlined above) the entire
print industry did, then that would hurt. At least the next time a new
version came out. Sure, a few high-profile companies dropping Adobe
products would make the share price drop, but it just ain't gonna happen.
That sort of company probably agrees with and applauds the sequence of
events which has led us up to this discussion. After all, they're all in
it for one thing: our cash. By any means necessary.
> > Obviously things like this ebook is evil, I've not bought any DVD's
> > with regions on them for similar reasons.
>
> I only started buying DVDs after the gift from Spider Software appeared.
>
> I wouldn't buy ebooks unless I could remove all copy protection.
Real books. That's where it's at :)
OK, so I'm an avid (not an Avid) reader and like nice colourful and busy
bookshelves. I still fail to see the 'revolution' in producing books in
any electronic format, since I can't sit in the garden and read them
without getting dust in some slot or other. And they're difficult to read
in bed too, as the pooter or PDA inevitably beeps and wakes up my other
half... plus paper doesn't require batteries either!
> > I'm kind of sneakily hoping that making enemies of Defconf attendees,
> > won't prove the smartest thing, ever.
>
> I'm hoping someone cracks in to Adobe and causes them a lot of nasty
> horrible pain. I don't mean a website defacement, I mean someone
> seriously fucking them over to prove a point.
>
> > Adobe better have good security consultants
>
> Let's hope not - I look forward to the backlash they will now receive.
What backlash?
Let's face it, the media have the guy down as "A Hacker". Ooh bad.
The (western) world at the moment is gonna love it, the good ol' US of A
catching one of them nasty Eastern evil hacker kids and throwing him in
jail. Whether or not you agree with the actions of either reversing
eBooks copy protection *or* the stupidity of publically proclaiming "We
got one!" and then jailing him is irrelevant.
Stating things like the sentiment above makes us all sound no more than
skript kiddiez, guys. And it's people like us who will cop all the
fallout, too, when the real kiddiez decide that attacking Adobe's hardened
network is either too hard or just boring, so they'll then start looking
for out-of-the-box Linux installs on the end of cable modems and ADSL
lines. Again. Or alternatively just point-and-shoot an enormous DDoS
against a company who are probably attached to some fairly large
providers, thus causing chunks of the 'net to go off-air. That'll be nice,
won't it?
Personally I think the Merkins went too far on this one. Regardless of
that, attacking them ain't gonna get us anywhere. Can we just go back to
advocacy instead?
G
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