[plug] MS Curriculum at schools and TAFEs ...

[The Thought Assassin]

On Mon, 23 Apr 2001, Christian wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 23, 2001 at 11:33:25AM +0800, The Thought Assassin wrote:
> > This is why I do not consider PDF to be an open standard.
> There are *lots* of implementations of arc4 (alleged RC4) in prominent
> software
> <...>
> Does this increase the acceptability of PDF in your view?

> > It isn't even that the present situation particularly
> > disadvantages Free Software - there are gratis non-free modules as I
> > understand it - but it illuminates Adobe's attitude to their stewardship
> > of the standard. If we accept PDF as an open standard because it is "close
> > enough" for "practical purposes", we send a message that freedom is
> > unimportant and take the first step along a slippery slope.

Does that answer your question? :) PDF as it stands right now does not
seem to be anything less than an open standard in any practical sense. The
theoretical proprietary lock-in and what it says about Adobe's lack of
commitment to openness are things that cause me enough concern about the
future to avoid actively supporting PDF now.

On a related topic...
As PLUG's resident security and cryptography "guru", what do you think
about the idea of putting the encryption layer within the document format?

-Greg Mildenhall