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No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)

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Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)

#21

Post by bottled_poe »

newaccount74 wrote: post #13
sennight wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legal is a cost center, which means that they don't get to say no. Here is how that conversation goes: Lawyer: You must include my unenforceable EULA. Anyone-with-a-brain: lol, no. Your "contribution" to this project only serves to do the direct opposite of our stated intent... Actually, why are you involving yourself here - are you billing for this? Lawyer scampering noises recede into the distance

I think what a lot of people don't understand is that a lawyers job is to provide advise, not to make decisions.

Poorly conceived advice apparently.

Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)

#23

Post by ajsnigrutin »

dawidpotocki wrote: post #4

> ISO 32000-2 was also, however, the first and only core PDF specification published exclusively — and only for purchase — by ISO, inhibiting its use and adoption over the last five years. Who would have thought that "international standards" that require payment don't work well? How many people are willing to spend a couple hundred CHFs to access the PDF specs? Also it seems insane to me that the PDF creator, Adobe,…

Yep, it's a giant scam...

Same for (a lot of) science..

You pay taxes to build universities, you pay taxes for professors and other educators paychecks, you pay taxes for research grants, and all that money from you is than used to 'discover' something, but you need to pay some private company to actually read the article.

It's slowly changing, but still, a lot of science, for "poor people", is only available on pirate sites.

Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)

#24

Post by ajsnigrutin »

legulere wrote: post #19
ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #11

Nothing encumbered by fees or patents should be accepted as a "standard." Period.

The problem is that work on standards costs a lot of money. Somehow we need to pay for that. The solution could be the state.

But what is a standard? Either one company or multiple companies wanting to be interoperable with their software decide on a way to save data (communicate, whatever), so more people buy their software and use their prouducts.

Adobe has an interest for more and more people to use PDFs because more people will then buy their products.. if they're afraid of the costs, don't publish the standard and risk people switching to other stanards.

Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)

#25

Post by johannes1234321 »

legulere wrote: post #19
ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #11

Nothing encumbered by fees or patents should be accepted as a "standard." Period.

The problem is that work on standards costs a lot of money. Somehow we need to pay for that. The solution could be the state.

The fun is: The fees for obtaining the standard doesn't really go to the ones who create the standard.

Standard is created by volunteers typically sponsored by their employer to go to standards meetings, who also pay (depending on national body) for being members.

Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)

#26

Post by chrisshroba »

The discussion around this being a non-free standard encumbered with license restrictions makes me wonder: is there an alternative for pixel-perfect rich document rendering? HTML needs sandboxing to be safe, rtf is barebones, and .docx has external dependencies.

Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)

#28

Post by throw0101c »

dawidpotocki wrote: post #4

> ISO 32000-2 was also, however, the first and only core PDF specification published exclusively — and only for purchase — by ISO, inhibiting its use and adoption over the last five years. Who would have thought that "international standards" that require payment don't work well? How many people are willing to spend a couple hundred CHFs to access the PDF specs? Also it seems insane to me that the PDF creator, Adobe,…

> Who would have thought that "international standards" that require payment don't work well?

Who says that they don't work well?

All of the manufactured goods that you own, and how they got transported (e.g., shipping containers, boats, fuel for boats, etc) are probably based a dozens of ISO (and ANSI, SAE, etc) standards that had to be paid for.

It's been the norm for about a century and helped build the modern world. See Engineering rules: global standard setting since 1880 by Yates and Murphy for a history. There are some good lectures by them online as well:

* https://www.hagley.org/research/history-hangout-0

Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)

#30

Post by dsr_ »

newaccount74 wrote: post #13
sennight wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legal is a cost center, which means that they don't get to say no. Here is how that conversation goes: Lawyer: You must include my unenforceable EULA. Anyone-with-a-brain: lol, no. Your "contribution" to this project only serves to do the direct opposite of our stated intent... Actually, why are you involving yourself here - are you billing for this? Lawyer scampering noises recede into the distance

I think what a lot of people don't understand is that a lawyers job is to provide advise, not to make decisions.

Specifically, lawyers advise their clients on how to avoid liability.

The minimum liability comes from doing nothing, so the default advice is "Don't."

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