<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 3/2/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">J.J. Green</b> <<a href="mailto:j.j.green@sheffield.ac.uk">j.j.green@sheffield.ac.uk</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Ian<br><br>> I have to disagree here! There is no inherent conflict between open<br>> source code and digital rights management (DRM). If for example I'm<br>> working with confidential data ...<br><br>No!<br><br>
DRM has NOTHING to do with security -- it is about<br>the deprecation of general purpose machines and their<br>replacement by domain-specific consoles controlled by<br>"trusted" authorities.</blockquote><div><br>
Rubish! DRM allows me to place data on an open server but only
allow the people I want to use it acess. I could build an entirely
closed set of servers and clients that can only talk to each other but
that's hard. <br>
<br>
Or maybe you know of some easy to use distributed geospatially aware
security system I could use to protect this dataset with. Remember it
has to work transparently for the user of both web clients and desktop
GIS.<br>
</div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">DRM is the enemy not just of open source, not just of<br>our society, but of our very species! Man without control
<br>of his tools is no more than a rat in a cage.</blockquote><div><br>
You can have the tools - thats what sparked this debate the publication of a first set of tools to do this. <br>
<br>
Lets be honest with our selves some one is going to build GeoDRM
systems would you rather it was done in the open where we can all watch
and participate or would you rather that each national mapping agency
and thier favourite vendor cobble something together in a backroom and
impose it on us. Think how hard mapping would be in Europe if for
example you had to an ESRI tool to draw maps of Britain and Germany but
could only draw maps of France and the low counties using MapInfo and
then you needed Cadcorp's viewer to add Luxemburg and Spain. <br>
<br>
Ian<br>
</div></div>-- <br><br>Ian Turton<br><a href="http://www.geotools.org">http://www.geotools.org</a><br><a href="http://pennspace.blogspot.com/">http://pennspace.blogspot.com/</a>