atw: Re: pdf security

Rhonda's research confirms a fundamental fact. Adobe would most
certainly lock down any passworded PDF files. A Russian
programmer was selling a program to unlock such files. A few years back
he attended a conference in the US and was promptly arrested. His
program was a crime in the US (thanks to the DMCA) but not in Russia. I
don't know whether it is still available.

I asked an experienced developer why a simple reader should be so large.
He claimed it was because it had to be able to check whether it was
printing currency (presumably US). I was skeptical until I read someone
had delved into a printer driver to discover code that would send a
message to the US Secret Service. Most people know this organisation is
charged with protecting the US president. Its main purpose is to chase
down currency counterfeiting. I am still a bit skeptical but currency
detection by printing programs sounds almost weird enough to be true. 

There are alternatives to the Adobe reader and Adobe products:
http://www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/post/pdf-editing-creation-50-open-sourcefree-alternatives-to-adobe-acrobat/

-- 
  Jonathan Moffett
  moff28@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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