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1. if you've got acrobat 5 (the full product not just the reader) then you
can save pdfs in a very secure form such that edits can't happen and save as
or copy don't work (although as the adobe vs dmitri skylarov case shows the
security can be cracked if someone's determined enough - but I suppose you
could say that about anything!).
2. Can't advise re legal liabilities.
3. If selling manuals is a major revenue stream then yes, but we save money
on in-house print costs by giving them docs in pdf form (our docs are an
overhead not a revenue stream).
You can also index your sets of pdfs so that they are globally searchable by
the user, or deliver them via the web etc.
Hope this helps.
Paul Newbold
LightWork Design
Shefield, UK
-----Original Message-----
From: bryan johnson [mailto:bryan -dot- johnson -at- motoman -dot- com]
Sent: 07 November 2001 16:50
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Electronic Document Transfer
The company I work for is considering providing electronic copies of our
manuals (pdf) to our customers in addition to hard copies. I am curious as
to any unforeseen pitfalls that list members have discovered. I am just
beginning to research this, so please pardon my ignorance.
Some issues I need to resolve:
1. Security. How secure are pdfs. Can the customer simply perform a "save
as" and set security to "none" and make alterations to the document?
2. What legal liabilities do we have if a corrupted file leads the user into
a dangerous situation?
3. Can this be a major loss of revenue if customers simply print out copies
in lieu of ordering new hard copies?
thanks in advance.
Bryan K. Johnson
Technical Writer
Motoman Inc.
(937) 847-3407
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