Brian: There are patches to get around the printing restriction. See the Adobe Remedies page at http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Adobe/Gallery/ And, if the copyright police come knocking on your door, call me. As a blind person in the U.S., you have a right to these files. On Sun, 3 Mar 2002, Brian Borowski wrote: > > There are certainly pdf files that I cannot convert, for two main reasons. > Either, there are some unknown character sets that pdftotext can't figure > out how to deal with, or printing is not allowed. The problem is, that if > printing isn't allowed, then we can't even convert them to display at all > and therefore, we can't read them. I will try and find out how to get > around this restriction, because it does not apply in our case, anyway. > > Brian > > > On Sat, 2 Mar 2002, Janina Sajka wrote: > > > Brian: > > > > The XPDF home page at http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/cracking.html says the > > following: > > > > > > "If any security features are turned on by the creator of a PDF > > document, the PDF file will be encrypted. These > > security features let an author disallow printing, copying > > text/graphics, editing, and/or adding annotations. > > > > "The Xpdf package honors these permission settings. Specifically: > > * xpdf will not copy/paste from a PDF file which disallows copying > > text/graphics > > * xpdf and pdftops will not print (convert to PostScript) a PDF file > > which disallows printing > > * pdftotext will not convert a PDF file which disallows copying > > text/graphics > > * pdfimages will not extract images from a PDF file which disallows > > copying text/graphics > > > > "I occasionally get email asking if I can explain how to crack a PDF > > file, or if I can help decrypt a PDF file. I won't > > help these people because I believe that an author's requests relating > > to the use of his/her work should be honored." > > > > Of course, there are patches out there to inhibit these restrictions and a > > soon to be published paper from AFB will demonstrate that people who are > > blind have the legal right in the U.S. to circumvent such measures. Some > > of these patches are referenced at the page entitled "A Gallery of Adobe > > Remedies," which is at http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Adobe/Gallery/, though > > I have not succeeded in getting the ones I've tried to work. > > > > Are you saying that the Debian distribution of XPDF inhibits these > > restrictions by default? > > > > > > On Sat, 2 Mar 2002, Brian Borowski wrote: > > > > > There are no problems in converting this book. Here's an easy recipe. > > > > > > * Assume you are running that most superb distribution of linux known as > > > debian; there's been a couple of nasty things said about debian recently by > > > a couple of people on here... > > > > > > * and you don't have xpdf installed, then do: > > > apt-get install xpdf > > > > > > * then: > > > xpdf 1893115852_xx.pdf > > > for each chapter. > > > > > > * You will end up with .txt files which are quite readable; though, they > > > have a little bit of leading space at the start of the lines, but > > > then: > > > > > > you could strip these with a one-line perl script like > > > > > > perl -pe 's/^\s+//;' input-file >output-file > > > > > > or something like that... > > > > > > Brian Borowski > > > > > > > > > On Fri, 1 Mar 2002, Janina Sajka wrote: > > > > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > > > From: Hollie Fischer <hollie_fischer at apress.com> > > > > > > > > Good Afternoon from Apress! > > > > > > > > We have made available for free download "A Programmer's Introduction to PHP > > > > 4.0" by Jason Gilmore. To download a copy of the book for FREE, please > > > > visit www.apress.com/books/electronic/1893115852/. > > > > > > > > Forward this email to anyone in your user group, circle of friends, or place > > > > of business who would find a free copy of this book useful and, feel free to > > > > pass along your thoughts on free downloads of Apress books. > > > > > > > > Kind Regards, > > > > Hollie > > > > > > > > Hollie Fischer > > > > Apress Public Relations Assistant > > > > 901 Grayson Street Suite 204 > > > > Berkeley CA 94710 > > > > phone 510.549.5938 > > > > fax 510.549.5939 > > > > www.apress.com > > > > Visit our online catalog today! > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > dclug mailing list > > > > dclug at tux.org > > > > http://www.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/dclug > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Speakup mailing list > > > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Speakup mailing list > > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > > -- > > > > Janina Sajka, Director > > Technology Research and Development > > Governmental Relations Group > > American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) > > > > Email: janina at afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175 > > > > Chair, Accessibility SIG > > Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) > > http://www.openebook.org > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > -- Janina Sajka, Director Technology Research and Development Governmental Relations Group American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) Email: janina at afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175 Chair, Accessibility SIG Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) http://www.openebook.org
