Dear Pam,
Max Senges gave us your contact details, regarding the PDF-Plugin in Chrome / Chromium. As you might be aware, we have launched a web-site and campaign regarding Free Software alternatives to Adobce Acrobat: http://pdfreaders.org
As there has been little information following the original announcement of embedded PDF support in Chrome, we were wondering whether the plugin is licensed under the same terms as the rest of the browser. Now it has recently been stated [1] that this is not the case.
Can you further comment on that? We were surprised to read that with all of Google's commitment to Free Software in recent times (including a Browser, two operating systems…), a PDF-Plugin is not "under your control". (jam@chromium.org)
We would really like to able to recommend a cross platform Free Software web browser, that has integrated Free pdf support. In our ongoing campaign to remove recommendations for Acrobat on government and public sector web-sites and/or adding links to pdfreaders.org, we are confident of increasing visibility of the software recommended on our site.
Hi Hannes,
thanks for the e-mail. Just one remark:
* Hannes Hauswedell h2@fsfe.org [2010-10-29 11:45:39 +0200]:
We would really like to able to recommend a cross platform Free Software web browser, that has integrated Free pdf support. In our ongoing campaign to remove recommendations for Acrobat on government and public sector web-sites and/or adding links to pdfreaders.org, we are confident of increasing visibility of the software recommended on our site.
We always tried to mention Adobe, but wrote about non-free PDF readers.
Thanks, Matthias
On 10/29/2010 11:54 AM, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
We always tried to mention Adobe, but wrote about non-free PDF readers.
*not* to mention Adobe ;)
Reagrds
On Friday 29 October 2010 11:54:20 Maelle Costa wrote:
On 10/29/2010 11:54 AM, Matthias Kirschner wrote:
We always tried to mention Adobe, but wrote about non-free PDF readers.
*not* to mention Adobe ;)
Reagrds
Yeah, I tought about that. But then again, I think in this E-Mail a main argument was "we would advertise your product over one product of a competitor -- if yours is Free Software". I thought naming things made that more obvious. And I thought this was ok, since it is not public communication. Or do you think I should be more careful?
OTOH I still think its possible, that Chrome actually uses Adobe code for the plugin. Remember that Google got Adobe to support WebM and HTML5. Shortly thereafter they announced shipping Flash with Chrome and now the plugin appeared out of nowhere… there could have been a deal.
* Hannes Hauswedell h2@fsfe.org [2010-10-29 13:14:59 +0200]:
Yeah, I tought about that. But then again, I think in this E-Mail a main argument was "we would advertise your product over one product of a competitor -- if yours is Free Software". I thought naming things made that more obvious. And I thought this was ok, since it is not public communication. Or do you think I should be more careful?
If you thought about it before, and with this argumentation I do not see a problem.
OTOH I still think its possible, that Chrome actually uses Adobe code for the plugin. Remember that Google got Adobe to support WebM and HTML5. Shortly thereafter they announced shipping Flash with Chrome and now the plugin appeared out of nowhere… there could have been a deal.
Yes, that is indeed possible.
Regards, Matthias
Dear Hannes,
Thanks for your note. The PDF plugin is not my area of specialty, but Jeffrey Chang (jeffreyc@google.com) should be able to help you find the information you need.
Best regards, - Pam
On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 11:45 AM, Hannes Hauswedell h2@fsfe.org wrote:
Dear Pam,
Max Senges gave us your contact details, regarding the PDF-Plugin in Chrome / Chromium. As you might be aware, we have launched a web-site and campaign regarding Free Software alternatives to Adobce Acrobat: http://pdfreaders.org
As there has been little information following the original announcement of embedded PDF support in Chrome, we were wondering whether the plugin is licensed under the same terms as the rest of the browser. Now it has recently been stated [1] that this is not the case.
Can you further comment on that? We were surprised to read that with all of Google's commitment to Free Software in recent times (including a Browser, two operating systems…), a PDF-Plugin is not "under your control". (jam@chromium.org)
We would really like to able to recommend a cross platform Free Software web browser, that has integrated Free pdf support. In our ongoing campaign to remove recommendations for Acrobat on government and public sector web-sites and/or adding links to pdfreaders.org, we are confident of increasing visibility of the software recommended on our site. -- ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐ Best Regards, │ Free Software Foundation Europe █▉ │ Hannes Hauswedell │ German Team █▉█▉█▉ │ │ Coordinator for pdfreaders.org ▉▉ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────┘
[1] http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=50852#c16
Dear Jeffrey,
I am Hannes of the German chapter of the Free Software Foundation Europe. I contacted Pam Greene on details regarding the PDF-Plugin in Chrome/Chromium. Maybe you can help us with the matter discussed below.
Thank you very much,
[+Chris DiBona, Google's open-source programs manager]
Hi Hannes,
Here's some more info which hopefully sheds some more light on the situation. In June, we released an updated version of Google Chrome that incorporates an integrated PDF viewer ( http://blog.chromium.org/2010/06/bringing-improved-pdf-support-to-google.htm...). This feature provides users with greater security, faster rendering of PDF content and a simpler user experience. Since the technology for the PDF viewer is licensed from a third party, we are unable to open source the code for it at this time or include it with open source Chromium builds. While we found this particular vendor to be the best option that meets all of our goals for the feature, there are many other open source PDF viewers and Chrome extensions that developers can include in their own versions of Chromium.
best, Jeff
On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 3:16 PM, Hannes Hauswedell h2@fsfe.org wrote:
Dear Jeffrey,
I am Hannes of the German chapter of the Free Software Foundation Europe. I contacted Pam Greene on details regarding the PDF-Plugin in Chrome/Chromium. Maybe you can help us with the matter discussed below.
Thank you very much,
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐Best Regards, │ Free Software Foundation Europe █▉ │ Hannes Hauswedell │ German Team █▉█▉█▉ │ │ Coordinator for pdfreaders.org ▉▉ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────┘
On Monday 01 November 2010 03:20:07 Pam Greene wrote:
Dear Hannes,
Thanks for your note. The PDF plugin is not my area of specialty, but Jeffrey Chang (jeffreyc@google.com) should be able to help you find the information you need.
Best regards,
- Pam
On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 11:45 AM, Hannes Hauswedell h2@fsfe.org
wrote:
Dear Pam,
Max Senges gave us your contact details, regarding the PDF-Plugin in Chrome / Chromium. As you might be aware, we have launched a web-site and campaign regarding Free Software alternatives to Adobce Acrobat: http://pdfreaders.org
As there has been little information following the original announcement of embedded PDF support in Chrome, we were wondering whether the plugin is licensed under the same terms as the rest of the browser. Now it has recently been stated [1] that this is not the case.
Can you further comment on that? We were surprised to read that with all of Google's commitment to Free Software in recent times (including a Browser, two operating systems…), a PDF-Plugin is not "under your control". (jam@chromium.org)
We would really like to able to recommend a cross platform Free Software web browser, that has integrated Free pdf support. In our ongoing campaign to remove recommendations for Acrobat on government and public sector web-sites and/or adding links to pdfreaders.org, we are confident of increasing visibility of the software recommended on our site. --
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐Best Regards, │ Free Software Foundation Europe █▉ │ Hannes Hauswedell │ German Team █▉█▉█▉ │
│ Coordinator for pdfreaders.org ▉▉ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────┘[1] http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=50852#c16