[Freegis-list] Re: Encrpting Shapefiles

[Bernhard Reiter]

On Fri, Aug 27, 2004 at 12:05:38PM -0400, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Bernhard Reiter wrote:
> >On Fri, Aug 27, 2004 at 06:34:04AM +0800, Dan Jacobson wrote:
> >
> >>Satyajit> I want to encrypt the shapefiles so that the set of data can be 
> >>seen only through
> >>Satyajit> my application.
> >>
> >>Sounds like a direction opposite from the goals of this list.
> >
> >
> >Why? :)
> >I mean if you have private geodata (like the locations 
> >of your relatives) I would perferably encrypt it 
> >and of course I would use Free Software to do it. 

> Encryption for privacy purposes is not anti-freedom, but it sounds like
> the fellow was talking about locking data so it was only accessable through
> his application.  Presumably this is, in essence, an attempt to limit the
> users access to data with further policy enforced by the application.

> This is a model I have seen from a number of companies (and governments!)
> and is I think usually quite opposite from the desire for various freedoms
> with software and data.

Frank,
you are completely on target.

My post was motiviated by adding to the debate 
that encryption for privacy issues is useful 
and can be done with Free Software. 

> Anyways, I guess my overall point is that beyond the core freedoms esposed
> by the free software movement there are a variety of other things that
> users (and concerned software developers) should be considering to ensure
> that users of all kinds can maneuver as they need to.

Nicely put!

This is why just looking at the license of a software or data
is not enough.

	Bernhard
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