On Mon, Nov 19, 2001 at 11:06:39AM -0600, Brent Harding wrote: > I don't think the drm will work in the long run. It has to be proprietary > to not allow hacking, anyone who has the source code can hack a program to > undo what the original did. Anything (proprietary or not) can be hacked, given enough time and skill. This has to be the worst argument for proprietary software I've seen. As I've seen written somewhere...security by obscurity is no security at all. What does a proprietary security system have that a free one doesn't have? Well, let's see. No checks against sloppy programming. Look at the deal with Adobe's Ebook format; that Russian fellow found a way to get into it, gave a talk about it, and was arrested, jailed, and is now on trial for copyright infringement. Did he actually infringe anyone's copyright? Did he actually steal anyone's work? No, he pointed out a security flaw and told someone how it could be exploited. Rather than being glad of the feedback so the problem could be fixed, Adobe sent the feds after him! That isn't security. Now if these guys had used a free standard, any security holes could be found and addressed. It's a much better deal for everyone. And eventually (I say eventually because human beings are pretty stupid about things sometimes), people who should already know better but don't will see that free software really is good for all of us. I firmly believe that that is where our future lies. -- Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV | From the pines down to the projects, Email: davros@ycardz.com | Life pushes up through the cracks. Phone: (972) 276-6360 | And it's only going forward, ICQ: 36621210 | And it's never going back.--Small Potatoes