"David R. Norton MVP" wrote...
"Harlan Grove" wrote in:
....

Then your experience is either severely outdated or
unrepresentative.

No, you're just being argumentative.

No, you're stating what most people, at least in the US and with some
familiarity with computer stores in the US, would recognize as pure BS.

The average computer store employee may know something about hardware, and
they may know something about operating systems and game software, but in my
experience they know nothing about MS Office nor anything about it's
password protection.

There may be B2B services with online databases available to service techs,
but they'd be VERY EXPENSIVE.

So all an IP thief would need to do is make a copy of a file, take it
home, copy it onto his own PC, call the shop and tell them his impish
nephew Bobby was playoing around on his PC and password protected his
customer list? And that proves legal access how?

Pretty hard to discuss anything with one who won't read or comprehend,
we'll drop this one. But it's really not that difficult.

I've read enough and comprehended enough to know you have no idea what
you're talking about. You seem to be unaware that on any machine that
provides e-mail with file attachments, it's possible to fake ownership (in
the OS sense) of any file that could be received via e-mail.

So how would anyone be able to establish legal entitlement to unprotect a
file before the fact? If it can't be proven, what's the point of paying
someone to attempt this pointless task?

. . . Everyone would like to have everything free, if that's not
possible then you have to pay whatever the price might be.

Given how much free software is available, it wasn't unreasonable for the OP
to ask about free password crackers. They may not be available (though SLOW
brute force code has been posted in the past in several Excel newsgroups).

No, just to point out your very disturbing lack of morals. . . .

Where have I advocated for breaking any laws? At most I've pointed out that
certain laws are very easy to break. That's immoral or amoral?

What I've written that you've failed to understand is that there are
legitmate uses for password cracking. Claims for legitimate use for password
cracking are more frequent than not, though I'll grant that claims aren't
proof, but my own experience has led me to believe that most such requests
are legitimate. If your experience is different, you gotta get some new
friends.

I'm done with you.

We'll see.