[free-sklyarov] List of Demands

[Seth David Schoen]

Jeme A Brelin writes:

> We don't need Adobe to DO anything.  They cannot support you because they
> MUST have copyright protection.  They're a SOFTWARE COMPANY.  The depend
> on false scarcity.  That scarcity is threatened by modern technology, so
> they do what they can to protect their business model.

The copy protection technology that AEBPR defeats is not preventing
people from copying Adobe software.  It is preventing people from
copying, and from making many other ordinary uses of, certain
electronic books.

Adobe doesn't _need_ to make software that prevents these uses.  For
many years, Adobe sold software which did not enforce these
restrictions against users.

For various reasons, some of Adobe's customers would like Adobe's
software to enforce these restrictions and prevent these uses.  But
Adobe's software is still useful to Adobe customers even if it doesn't
impose these restrictions.  It's _more_ useful to certain customers
when it doesn't.

Allowing people to circumvent these restrictions in order to make
legal uses does not imply the end of copyright, and there are many
software companies (like ElcomSoft!) which currently rely on
copyrights but don't think that these restrictions are a good thing
for end users.

A lot of us here are certainly free software enthusiasts as well as
DMCA and CTEA critics; but we shouldn't allow anyone to get away with
suggesting that opposing TPMs is the same thing as opposing copyright,
or that opposing putting people in jail for "circumvention" is the
same thing as opposing copyright.

ElcomSoft's documentation is very clear that copyrights exist, that
ElcomSoft does not advocate copyright infringement, and that software
like AEBPR is designed to allow the purchaser of a copy to have more
control over the possible uses of that copy.  Adobe might not have
intended for the user to have so much control, but Adobe could
certainly change its mind on that point without giving up on copyright
entirely.

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org>  | And do not say, I will study when I
Temp.  http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/  | have leisure; for perhaps you will
down:  http://www.loyalty.org/   (CAF)  | not have leisure.  -- Pirke Avot 2:5