There was several blogs which condemned IE’s choice of using a program called LockLizard which provided DRM for their PDF’s. LockLizard is a program which only runs on Windows and requires and periodic internet connection to ensure that the user opening the LockLizard PDF has the rights to do so.

I am entirely for IE maintaining their intellectual property and preventing piracy but as a native Linux user this had previously totally ruled out the option of using their material for my training, this didn’t concern me totally as there are similar products available from IPExpert which I have been looking at. Sure there was the option of me dual booting or running that virtual XP machine I have to use from time to time but its such an inconvenience.

But they finally announced that they will no longer use LockLizard and use standard PDFs instead in this blog post, they also announced some new anti piracy measures such as stenography and anti piracy bots. For me this is a great, when I start looking at solutions for my CCIE lab, I will review their material.