License agreement

kaz2100 · 08-23-2007, 08:07 AM

Hya,

I appreciate any kind of feedbacks.

Situation:
Acrobat reader (7.0.9-1) does not work on my Debian lenny penguin.

Here is a part of license agreement.

Quote:

2.5.1 You may not modify, adapt, translate or create derivative works based upon the Software. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software except to the extent you may be expressly permitted to decompile under applicable law, it is essential to do so in order to achieve operability of the Software with another software program, and you have first requested Adobe to provide the information necessary to achieve such operability and Adobe has not made such information available. Adobe has the right to impose reasonable conditions and to request a reasonable fee before providing such information. Any such information supplied by Adobe and any information obtained by you by such permitted decompilation may only be used by you for the purpose described herein and may not be disclosed to any third party or used to create any software which is substantially similar to the expression of the Software. Requests for information should be directed to the Adobe Customer Support Department.

Problem seems to be libgtk. Acrobat requires 2.4 or higher. Lenny has 2.10. And the adobe script does not seem to recognize 10.

Question is:
As acrobat is a bash script, I think I can modify it to recognize library version.
I am not allowed to modify the script provided.
Is there any good way?

Did I already violate license agreement? (I traced bash script.)

I tried to a submit bug report to Adobe, but it does not seem like I am eligible to do so.

Happy Penguins!

MensaWater · 08-23-2007, 08:22 AM

Modifying a script would not likely constitute an infringement.

The intent of the license verbiage is to insure no one makes their own Adobe like product that competes with Adobe. So long as you're using Adobe's software and got it from Adobe they're not likely to mind what you do to get it working on your system.

If however, you attempted to put what you did in public domain as an "open source" thing then Adobe might view that as a violation and go after you. However, I doubt they would do that over a bash script - they are trying to protect proprietary code they compiled - not prevent people from installing it.

P.S. This is not a "legal" opinion - just an opinion based on common sense. I am not a lawyer so am not qualified to give "legal" opinions.

hansalfredche · 08-23-2007, 08:23 AM

I think Adobe will not care if you do this on your personal machine ...

Anyway if you would be permitted do it or not will depend mostly on your national law. Parts of licence agreements can be invalid under national law.

kaz2100 · 08-23-2007, 03:37 PM

Hya,

Thanks for your opinions.

So, it may not be a good idea to post what I did here.

By the way, I found the way to submit a bug report to Adobe, so I did it. Hopefully they will take care of this issue.

Happy Penguins!

GregLee · 08-23-2007, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaz2100

I tried to a submit bug report to Adobe, but it does not seem like I am eligible to do so.

No problem. One copy will go to their software engineers who will adopt your correction for future releases, and another copy will go to their legal department, who will put you in jail. In fact, why am I even writing this, since you won't be able to read it? It's very sad.