Re: [pdf-devel] Use of Adobe's CMap files in GNU PDF

[Martin Schröder]

2007/12/8, Kenshi Muto <address@hidden>:
> The points for me are:
> - - No one can't convert CMap files to other formats under current
>   license even without a modification of the mapping table.

Agreed, that should be possible.

> - - Even it makes broken PDFs, users may have a freedom to modify with
>   their own responsibility, IMHO. If Adobe is afraid that broken CMap
>   files are distributed widely, a license like "show users your
>   modification and reason explicitly, if you modified something"
>   seems enough well than prohibiting.

I'm curious how that would work. :-)

I still don't see why one would want to modify the tables. The only
use case I can see is fixing bugs in them -- but if you do that, the
resulting PDF or your application is incompatible with the rest of the
world. Or you can simply use a different (i.e. your own) CMap, which
you then must embed into the PDF.

To sum up: Is the license of the CMap tables really worth the effort
we have spent till now? Are there no other more interesting issues of
gnu-pdf to discuss? To me this whole issue screams typical FSF: Legal
issues are more interesting then technical ones.

Best
   Martin