I just got "the Jinx" on CD-ROM. I'm posting this here since I didn't know where else to put it, and I figured since the Jinx by Anneman was/is largely a mentalism publication, someone here might be able to help me out: How do you disable the password protection from this pdf file? I'm reading the document with Adobe Acrobat on Windows, and when I want to do some reading, I have to enter the annoying password everytime. Since I own it, its my copy for my personal use... I want to now disable this annoying thing. Can any Adobe experts lend some help?

Ah, another wonderful benefit spun from the dishonesty and theft of the cretins who steal magic. Great, isn't it?

I despise password protected PDFs too. Unless the PDF uses a specific password created for that one recipient (like Anders did for the PDF of Healed & Sealed I purchased from him) password protecting is pretty much a useless nuisance.

Honest people don't need to be subjected to them, and dishonest people will not only circumvent them, they will show their peers how to do the same.

This entire copy-protecting business was something lots of us in the software industry have dealt with over the years. We thought we'd slayed the beast when Lotus relented many, many moons ago when they finally removed it from 1-2-3 disks, but alas...

As for removing that annoying thing, hex editing will do it, but technically that's illegal, thanks to the DCMA.

John LeBlanc
Houston, TX

Yes but he is in Canada. So if you flew up there you could help him.

You know, you have a point there!

John LeBlanc
Houston, TX

Yes, I am from Canada. Aside from flying up to help me , perhaps a more practical way would be a PM? I'd appreciate it. But this "hex-editing" business sounds like I'd need some software and a stomach for nuts-n-bolts tinkering. I was hoping it might be something easier. Can I not even CHANGE the password to something a little more friendlier then this alphanumeric gibberish?



... as for U.S. laws, what law would prohibit the tinkering or altering of software that is for personal use? I am at a loss for thinking of anything analogous to this. In fact I can think of many similar examples that would say that it is Okay... like being able to remove the "do not remove" tag from mattresses, (once they are delivered to the end customer) or buying music and making your personal use mixed CD from said purchased music is OK.

The Digital Copyright Millennia here after know as, DCMA, (just from what I have read) (i am not a lawyer)does in fact make it illegal to change ANYTHING in a copyright program, even for personal use. Lets say that you can adjust windows so that will not ever crash on your machine. You still cant change anything in it.(even for personal use) As I said I am not a lawyer.

Ha! Oh I haven't heard one that good in a while. Ya, like I'll ever take that seriously. My personal values state above all else that "I shalt respect and obey the law". Unfortunately it is equal to my other ethic, which is "I shalt not put up with B.S." What' next? I guess I'll have to take out all the penned-in notes in the margins of all the copyrighted books I've bought. Or remove my initials from all the CD's I've bought. Sure, Its a bit of a tangential rant, as this law refers to digital copyrights, but I'll deal with my purchased 1's and 0's any way I see fit.

Adrian, to answer your question about what law would keep you from altering code in a program, they're called the International Copyright and Trademark laws.

By international treaty, copyrights are international in scope unless specifically limited and noted in the copyright statement on the program disk. Canada, as almost every other civilizzed nation, is signatory to that treaty. Hence, it applies to you.

Sorry.

As to marginal notes in books, such notes are NOT altering the actual text of the book, nor are they duplicating said books for redistribution and sale without compensation to the copyright holder(s). hence, no real violation.

At least, that's what they taught us at a recent seminar I attended about copyright and trademark law (I was performing for the attendees and got to hit the seminar as part of my fee.

Hope that helps.

But remember, I am not a lawyer, just a grammar host with a small case of TYPOchondria!

Happy New Year!

Lee Darrow, C.Ht.
http://www.leedarrow.com

Thank you Lee for taking the time to respond in this thread. Unfortunately, I believe that removing a password to a pdf file that I have purchased and will keep for personal use is in keeping with the spirit of this law (I am not fundamentaly altering the character of this program, merely removing a nuisance).

Regardless whether this is or is not in keeping with the spirit of the law, this law does not intuitively resonate with me. No institution of intelligentia can rationalize me out of what I instinctively feel to be true. It's what I call my "B.S." quotient: that to which I balk, choke and/or otherwise decide to carry out my actions as I normally would. On that note, I have some Google-searching to do

Print it out and scan it back in again to PDF. Im sure if you have PDF maker you can remove the password. Two possibilites..

Adrian,

(Gosh, as I typed that, a very bad Rocky imatation almost automatically came from my lips. Guessing that something you've had to endure for a long while?)

I too own the Jinx on CD and took Mike Close's advice from his column in MAGIC and just created a folder with the password as it's name. Then it's as simple as just cutting and pasting, with nothing ever to lose.

It's helped here.

Best,
Scott

I can understand your frustration Adrian, I have taken a similar approach as Scott, rather than renaming the folder, I have renamed the file with the password.

International law is a funny old thing, my personnel view is that nations/companies/etc love it when it serves their purpose and conveniently abstain when it doesn’t. UN mandates and resolutions come to mind. This is not a political forum and so I apologise.

Taking the DVD/DeCSS (the ability to copy DVDs, by removing the encryption, for personnel use) as an ongoing case study, I understand the issue is still being resolved (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3033067.stm) for the US, and (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3090768.stm) for the UK.

But Norway (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3341211.stm, and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3257586.stm) seem to be in favour of the defendant, he “had not broken the law by creating a system that could get around copy protection on DVDs.”. Norway, in my last visit, was a very civilised nation.

I don’t know about Canada, but if you go to Norway, and taking the DVD issue as a precedence, you could use the software from http://www.elcomsoft.com/apdfpr.html . Using the user password, it will remove the admin password, and thereby any password checks.

I have successfully used this software to remove the password from similarly protected CD-ROMs. It's nice not to have to deal with the passwords anymore (I have also done as someone else suggested and renamed the file to include the password)

Yo Adrian,
Unless Interpol(sp) comes and takes your computer-----who cares what you do with what you own. Just a thought lol
Skulldini