[DrewAllen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AyeCapn

Looks like its a moot discussion anyway. The data on the CD is great, but is only printable. No export, no copy/paste even. The backend is an Access database that is password protected

That's not necessarily the end. There are tools you can use to get usable data from print files. I've never used it, but I heard that Datawatch's Monarch Technologies is good at this. You may also be able to print to a Postscript file and clean it up to get the information you need. Finally, you may be able to print to an Adobe PDF file and use PDF Writer to pull out the data.

Drew

[Peter Gulka]

Let's say for argument's sake that in a purely hypothetical situation I was able to get around the password.



Would it be ethical to use the data?

[MMathyer]

I'd like to second Drew's suggestion of looking into Datawatch's Monarch Technologies. I used early versions of the Monarch product years ago to capture data from screen prints of AS/400 reports, and then dropped the data into spreadsheets. It worked very well, and was fairly easy to use.

[Melissa Siobhan]

If you were given the data to use and you are still using it as per the intent how would getting around the password and importing it be any different than paying someone to hand enter all of them?

[RobertWild]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AyeCapn

Let's say for argument's sake that in a purely hypothetical situation I was able to get around the password.



Would it be ethical to use the data?

In my book - YES - I'm assuming that you've paid the licence for the use of the data, you are not looking to de-re-engineer the data for third parties - technically as you paid for the data, and you own the CD, the company can't enforce how the data is used.

Obligitory car analogy: If, after signing and paying for a new car, would you take kindly to the sales rep telling you that contractually you are only allowed to drive your car at 10mph on wednesdays, fridays and every third sunday?

Also, I think I remember reading somewhere (probably Slashdot) that in the States, EULA's are non-enforcable, as they are considered as a contract that is forced after purchase of product.

Also, others have indicated that it's possible to extract the data in electronic form from other means without resorting to cracking the shell - so that's two ways to get the data in: Manually & Electronically (via the print functionality). All the password is doing is preventing a more effecient system.

An alternative (sorry coffeebug) is to manually enter in the data, and charge back your time to the data vendor. It'll be funny to see their response to that.

If that assumption is false, then that's a different kettle of fish, and much greyer waters...

cheers

Rob

[Peter Gulka]

So I have finally made progress on this issue. Turns out the CD I was working with was free as a result of some membership our Advancemnt Office has paid for. I found out more information about a version that is completely exportable, and we have purchase that data for all of Canada. I'll be spending a week after it gets here analyzing the structure and developing an import procedure for it.

[Elaine Tucker]

Glad that this scenario has a "happy ending" (or at least some portion of.... no telling how involved the import will get)