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A Question of Ethics (was: Overriding Acrobat User Settings)
Subject:A Question of Ethics (was: Overriding Acrobat User Settings) From:"Robert L. Stallard \(News Lists\)" <rlslists -at- ev1 -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 15 Aug 2001 21:10:29 -0500
Greetings Colleagues,
I am emerging from the lurker dimension because I have had enough and need
to express my opinion. I apologize for the long tirade below. You may
freely flame me, for I refuse to feel offended.
Kelly wrote:
> ...So, the bottom line is that it couldn't be done. I
> cannot BELIEVE that Adobe doesn't have a way to
> do this. I am completely shocked. BTW, I confirmed
> my belief that Adobe's help files and knowledge
> base are almost completely useless...
It is ethically righteous to defend your copyrights and expect just returns
for your efforts and passion. However, when factoring "greed" into this
precept, we ALL suffer: customers, employees, the companies themselves, fair
use, freedom of speech, society in general.
Professionally, I am "soul searching" and re-evaluating my ethics. This is
leading me to seriously consider moving away from the self-proclaimed
"industry standard" authoring tools developed by these companies, and using
HTML and similar technologies (which are truly industry standard) as the
main document development platform instead. I will start by converting all
my MS-Word and PDF files to HTML-based documents.
I can accomplish this using authoring software and shareware (even freeware)
from smaller, yet friendlier and more ethical, developers. Inclusively,
several of these lesser-known tools can allow me to even produce HTML help,
multimedia apps, and compiled e-books as executables (.exe). Using my
ingenuity, I can simplify layouts to even allow documents for print.
Why do we need Adobe, Macromedia, Microsoft and their other cronies, anyway?
Although at present, Microsoft is way too pervasive (read: invasive) to
trash immediately, but who knows.in two or three years, we may have better
alternatives. Open source-based OSs and software are getting better by the
minute. Furthermore, organizations typically compensate professionals with
open source-based technology skills much better than their Windows-adept
counterparts.
If members of a profession (such as technical communications) decide to
simply avoid or reject certain tools or practices, by power of the masses,
righteousness may prevail. Just something on which to ponder, IMHO.
Have a great day!
Robert L. Stallard
Technical Writer
Houston, Texas
-- Citizen of the World & Child of the Universe --
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A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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