On Tuesday 24 July 2001 14:12, you wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Jul 2001, Robert Davies wrote:
> I remember seeing a MacPlus with some desktop publishing thing on it - may
> have been an early copy of PageMaker - and a LaserWriter attached,
> sometimes in the late eighties. It was soooo much more attractive than the
> IBM boxes of the time :)
It was all out in 1986, years before Win-3.0 came out, before that M$ were a
laughing stock, as DOS and Win was so backward.
> > As for Adobe, DMCA is a corporate law, designed to suit corporations and
> > protect their profits.
>
> Yup. Sadly all too true. Unfortunately your concept of 'customer
> resistance' will never happen while people like the DoJ seem repeatedly
There are many cases where companies have changed policies in the glare of
bad publicity. Your logic is too defeatist, after all copy protection
schemes were successfully resisted. Magazines regularly publish info on
circumventing DVD regions, and Australia may even rule the scheme as illegal
and anti-competitive.
> companies make vast profits from (a) corporate sales, where they're very
> unlikely to ever change having just predicated an entire company's systems
But there is a corporate user revolt, they also like to cut costs, and have
changed their systems many times within the last 20 years.
Now I'm not naive enough to think home users, can directly affect Adobe, as I
pointed out removing pdf readers is pointless. However I first came across
this problem due to a thread on another list, in relation to schools, where
Adobe were trying to sell some PDF product. It's ppl with contacts like
that, can put pressuer on Adobe, explaining why persuing ppl who expose
weaknesses in their schemes, is counter productive.
Then there is the political issue of the DMCA which backs sweeping problems
under the carpet, and makes criminals of researchers, rather than software
pirates.
> > There's a need to attract press attention, and portraying a 'war' between
> > Adobe and 'Hackers' protesting against the arrest of Dmitry, is sexy
> > enough to get the issues addressed by the press.
>
> Yes, but it's always going to fall on the side of the corporates. Right
> now the word 'hacker' is a dirty one; Joe Public sees 'hackers' (well,
> crackers but you get the idea) as A Bad Thing, second only to the scourge
> of terrorists. Especially now that we get fictional 'hacking wars'
> conjured up by the US press... and then retracted after the US skript
> kiddiez go to town. I'll dig the URL out for that one shortly.
Ah come on, the press love a good fight and putting across both sides
(eventually). An example is the +ve press and sympathy the IRA get in the US
for example. Jon was blowing off steam as he's angry, I doubt many folk will
feel much sympathy with Adobe if they do have an incident, that's not
advocating an attempt, and this case is not directly Linux related, it's the
wider issues that make it relevant (e-book processor runs under Win only).
Portraying Dmitry as a 'Cracker' just doesn't stand up, then the press have
to wonder why the FBI did this. According to some sources it appears he has
been used as a consultant by them themselves, in breaking password security.
You seem to advocate keeping your head down, and not doing anything, well, in
the words of the story, 'They arrested my neighbour, I did nothing, then they
arrested my other neighbour, I did nothing, and then they arrested me, and
there was noone left to help'. A writer commenting on life in Nazi Germany.
> > The same process is happening here, and no political party seems to be
> > effectively opposing this process. In fact they seem to be actively
> > competing to come up with illiberal policies.
>
> s/cies/ticians/ :) Can anyone say 'Jack Straw' ??
It's the whole lot of them, the parties seem equally bad, precisely because
reasonable thinking ppl have kept quiet and are too apathetic to show why
pandering to the bar room, lock 'em up and throw away the keys brigade, is
wrong.
This is a case with backing of the EFF, even Adobe have now put out a press
release saying they no longer support the arrest, and withdraw their
complaint.
Rob
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