[LINK] M$ lock-in

[Howard Lowndes]

On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 13:37, MacIntosh, Ian wrote:
> PDF is not a 'bad' format - it has some real advantages (presentation
> control, etc).  I must admit I was ardently against it to start with but
> time mellows me :-)  Attaching and rtf/text/other accessible format
> document as an alternative is essential for accessibility.  
> 
> IANAL but to handle the issue of alterability (if that really is, say, a
> legal requirement) then it is quite easy to put in a caveat that states
> that the authorative version is the PDF and that the other versions are
> provided for convenience and accessibility.  That means, in a court of
> law, you have a 'locked down' version (as much as you can lock PDF
> down).  You may also have to prove the processes/procedures that are
> used for uploading/backups/version control etc, but they should be
> pretty much common sense.

Actually "lock down" and legal accountability is a major issue in some
cases.

One of my clients is an airline with a large maintenance facility and
they have to be able to sign and lock down their aircraft maint docs
which are on electronic format for convenience.

You can just imagine how touchy CASA can be if there is a possible maint
problem.

> 
> Ian
> (as always my own thoughts ...)
> 
> Howard Lowndes wrote (with a few snips)
> 
> On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 13:00, Liddy Nevile wrote:
> > some others of us have a problem with PDF that is called  
> > accessibility!!! we'd prefer it to always be accompanied by rtf, if it
> 
> > has to be used.
> 
> 
> ...or plain text even, but you can see why orgs do like to publish in
> PDF.  Basically it presents the formatting that they want, which RTF
> does not always do, and it can be made unalterable, which RTF definitely
> cannot be made to do.
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Howard.
LANNet Computing Associates;
Your Linux people <http://www.lannetlinux.com>
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