[Scribus] Creating PDF forms whose data can be saved with acrobat reader

[Maciej Hanski]

Louis Desjardins wrote:

> I just checked with Acrobat Pro version 8 and I find the following option:
> Advanced Options > Activate the Rights for Acrobat Reader (I am translating
> from French, so it might no be exactly that wording in the English version).
> What I understand from the dialog that pops up is that this will allow, from
> within Acrobat Reader, to save a copy of the form once it is filled
> on-screen.

This is new to Acrobat (since version 8), at the time I looked for an
appriopriate solution  there was no other option than Adobe Reader
Extensions (see the wikipedia article).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_LiveCycle_Reader_Extensions#Acrobat_8_Professional

> 
> I haven't gone through all the doc about Adobe LiveCycle but I understand
> that this solution is to allow a web-based PDF creation process and is aimed
> at fairly large group of people. It is not a desktop solution. When you look
> at the technical specs, you see that it implies servers and databases.

I am fully aware how this solution works. I did read their docs a few
years ago, the intended target audience would be a "fairly large group
of people", and  "servers and databases" would not pose a challenge to
my employer. The problem was the price and lack of other solutions to
enable saving data for Adobe Reader users.

> There is a cost for Acrobat Pro 8 and I wonder whether this option could be
> offered as well into Scribus? Since we can already do most of what Acrobat
> Pro can do, I wonder whether we have also the right to implement such
> Advanced Options in an OSS.

Quoting the abovementioned wikipedia article:
"The EULA for Adobe Reader now forbids enabling features found in
Acrobat except via files enabled via licensed Adobe Reader Extensions.
This, it has been argued, would prevent third parties reverse
engineering the system and offering alternative software since the end
users would be in a situation of license violation"

Although I do not like Adobe's monopolist attitude regarding PDF forms,
the risks of implementing such features directly in Scribus are pretty
obvious.

cheers
Maciej