On Sat, Mar 12, 2005 at 03:01:15PM +0100, Frederic Peters wrote: > Hello, > > I recently adopted pdftohtml, a program to translate PDF documents into > HTML. It is a derivative of xpdf. I am now asked to override the DRM > tests (current code checks for "don't copy me" pdf flag and aborts if > set). >
I wrote a patch for xpdf to fix the permissions problem discussed in Debian bug #145559. The package maintainer eventually got together a more comprehensive fix and the bug was closed. Here's an excerpt from my message on the BTS explaining why it was a severity important bug: Being unable to print and use the X selection facility for certain documents has a "major effect on the usability of a package, without rendering it completely unusable to everyone." Pdftotext is the only easy way to feed the contents of a pdf file into a text-to-speech program. [...] For the vision impaired, xpdf is mostly or completely useless if pdftotext refuses to run on many valid pdf files. > > My current idea is to default to upstream behaviour and implements an > option to override the settings but I would like to have some comments > on the "DRM-in-Debian" situation. > Almost every bit of software in Debian either completely ignores copyright license information embedded in files. As an example, cp will not prevent you from copying a Debian package contrary to terms in its /usr/share/doc/../copyright file. PDF readers and pdftohtml should be no exception. It is important to be careful not to introduce new bugs when closing this one. Just like a fix to a "refuses to copy" bug in cp could not cause cp to silently strip the copyright file out of Debian packages it copies, your bug fix must not break the pdf reader's ability to display or output the copyright license data if it had that feature before. -- Brian Ristuccia [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
