Lou_de_Montfort@adobeforums.com wrote:
> I work at a law firm that is making greater use of electronic imaging. We use PDF's and images to give attorneys easy access to information. The problem is that attorneys are saving some document images to their hard drives and desk tops. This gives them the impression that they have the one and only, unchangeably reliable document. That's not true. Documents change, whether completely in substance, or by addition of a judge's signature that turns a proposal into law. We need to be able to prevent attorneys from saving documents to their own computers/desktops. We need for them to rely on us, the MIS people and the litigation support staff, to give them the fresh information that they need. To do that, we need to be able to prevent attorneys from saving documents to their computers.
>
> Is it possible to prepare a PDF that can't be saved to any computer except the database/server?
You cannot prevent people from saving a copy of the file. Even Policy
Server cannot prevent that. If the file has been downloaded from a web
server, then a local copy of the file has already been created. I think
you need to take a different approach to the problem. Digital
Signatures can help you with what you are trying to do. When a digital
signature is applied to a PDF, the contents of the document are
encrypted to ensure that the document is not modified. Digital
Signatures would address issues related to the validity of the documents
rather than access control. You should definately look into digital
signatures to see if they are feasible for you.
Another possibility would be to use Policy Server to control access to
the documents. When a document is created, you would apply a policy to
the document which determines who has access to that document. If a
newer version of the document is created, Policy Server would allow you
to revoke access to the original document and apply a similar policy to
the new document. Once the original document has been revoked, no one
will be able to access the document again.
I think both seem to be valid possibilities based on the limited
information I have about your environment. The right choice will come
down to determining which solution best meets your business requirements.
Justin Klei
Cardinal Solutions Group
www.cardinalsolutions.com
