Different Execl 'security' settings in different countries

[Mike]

Apologies if this isn't the right newsgroup, but I'm fairly new to all this.
But here goes.....

I recently did a piece of work in an old French colony/protectorate, where
we built a very large and quite innovative model that dealt with the
development of a private sector approach to rural water supply in a
developing country. Sounds boring I know, but it was massive (the model with
all its scenarios and macros ended up at 30+mb) and there were literally
thousands of 'data points' (i.e. non-calculated cells) but more importantly
the methodology of certain aspects within the model were considered to be
quite valuable intellectual property for the firm that I was working for,
and as a result when we burned CDs to distribute around the key parties we
encountered a problem that I have not seen before.....

....Basically, when the model was taken back to France for dissmeination with
a key partner, apparently the Fench version of Excel could not read the
model (since for commercial reasons we hid and protected all the formulae)
and the reason given was that in France they have certain security laws that
prohibit the Excel method of encription that hiding formulae involves.

I guess my questions are: (i) has anyone had similar experiences, and (ii)
is there any way around this, whilst working within the laws of the
jurisdiction involved but still protecting intellectual property?

Mike

 

[Niek Otten]

Hi Mike,

Indeed in France, law forbids the use of very strong password encryption.
For use with a French version you'll have to encrypt with a French version
and vice versa. I have not (yet) come across any easier workarounds.
BTW I think password crackers work equally well for both methods

--

Kind Regards,

Niek Otten

Microsoft MVP - Excel

 

[Mike]

Niek

Thanks for confirming the explanation we were given. It's just one to watch
out for in the future I guess, but hopefully not something that I'll come
across too often.

Mike

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you're using xl2k:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q278679
OFF2000: "This Workbook (Document) Has Been Password Protected"
When You Open Workbook or Document

Taken from that kb article:

Before 2 June 2000, the laws of France did not allow documents to be encrypted
by using the RC4 encryption scheme, which Word and Excel normally use when
files are saved with password protection. Now Excel workbooks and Word
documents can be encrypted by using the RC4-40 stream cipher.

 

[Niek Otten]

Thanks, Dave!

Niek

If you're using xl2k:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q278679
OFF2000: "This Workbook (Document) Has Been Password Protected"
When You Open Workbook or Document

Taken from that kb article:

Before 2 June 2000, the laws of France did not allow documents to be encrypted
by using the RC4 encryption scheme, which Word and Excel normally use when
files are saved with password protection. Now Excel workbooks and Word
documents can be encrypted by using the RC4-40 stream cipher.

 

[Mike]

I should say that as well as protecting and hiding formulae, we had password
protected access to the model itself.... which seems to be the root cause of
the problem.

Thanks

Mike

Thanks, Dave!

Niek

If you're using xl2k:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q278679
OFF2000: "This Workbook (Document) Has Been Password Protected"
When You Open Workbook or Document

Taken from that kb article:

Before 2 June 2000, the laws of France did not allow documents to be encrypted
by using the RC4 encryption scheme, which Word and Excel normally use when
files are saved with password protection. Now Excel workbooks and Word
documents can be encrypted by using the RC4-40 stream cipher.

model

with

parties

we

dissmeination

with

laws