Re: Adobe Reader 8.1.2

[Tom Liotta <qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jack Derham wrote:
> Even old reliable Adobe can screw up.  If you down load the latest reader,
> it won't work out of the box but will rather tell you that it has a bad
> plug-in and will quite. Research their web sites found the proposed fix.
> Remove current reader through the Control Panel, delete the directory and
> then install. Works like a charm.

I have avoided upgrading Adobe Reader since shortly after the 
Macromedia/Flash acquisition. The changes in licensing were 
disturbing at that time. (I no longer enable Flash at all.) I have 
no idea how the licensing looks today.

Wherever possible, I go with either continuing to use an old version 
of Adobe Reader or with any alternative reader that I can get to 
work, e.g., the Sumatra PDF viewer.

Note that this is purely a personal preference rather than a rant 
against Adobe or Macromedia. More than _anything_ else, this is a 
statement that licenses should _ALWAYS_ be read all of the way 
through, and they should be understood.

I just got pushed over the edge when Product A's license says that 
it "includes Product B (and possibly others) and the acceptance of 
this license implies the acceptance of Product B's license (and 
possibly others)". There's something about the implied nesting of 
licenses that goes against my grain.

That gets serious when it gets hard to determine what the "(possibly 
others)" covers. If you can't figure out what all is included, it's 
very hard to determine what license terms have just been agreed to. 
Some of the early spyware stuff got installed under related 
licensing terms. It's probably all figured out in legal terms by 
now.... maybe.

Tom Liotta