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Dear omegatron,
On 25/05/13 15:23, omegatron wrote:
On http://www.pdfreaders.org/index.en.html , you recommend SumatraPDF reader, but this software contains DRM copy protection antifeatures. Shouldn't the FSFE take a stance against this?
We do not support DRM or other anti-features. However, as long as the software is free, patching and removing such anti-features is trivial, and hence we do not see a need to discriminate against SumatraPDF on those grounds.
PDFreaders.org aims to neutrally list Free Software PDF readers regardless of any other philosophical positions that may have influenced a particular reader's design. PDFreaders.org should not be taken to endorse any listed reader; it only has informative purpose.
It prevents copying text from "protected" PDFs for fair use purposes like translation or quoting. This is contrary to the principles of Free Software:
https://code.google.com/p/sumatrapdf/issues/detail?id=2003 https://code.google.com/p/sumatrapdf/issues/detail?id=1927
I know Evince and Okular also contain this type of restriction, but they make it optional, and Debian patches software to remove these "features".
You are welcome to patch (and fork) the software if you dislike a particular design decision. In fact, I would encourage you to do so.
Thank you for sharing your concerns.
P.S. Please note that we are considering dropping SumatraPDF creators a line about the issue; however, we will not alter our position regardless of their attitude to our concerns regarding DRM.
Sincerely yours, - -- Heiki "Repentinus" Ojasild FSFE Fellowship Representative mailto:repentinus@fsfe.org xmpp:repentinus@jabber.fsfe.org http://blogs.fsfe.org/repentinus/