UPDATE: Wednesday, Dec 21, 2022 · 9:07:18 PM +00:00 · boblite
I am using the latest release of Adobe Reader 2022.003.20282 64 bit. It will not allow me to search or excerpt from this particular State of New Jersey government document. I have been able to search some PDF documents but not others. This one is not searchable and I cannot copy any text from it.
For $240 a year you too can actually search a PDF document for a particular word. For $240 per annum you too can convert a PDF document to plain text so you can cut and paste excerpts. If you do not have $240 spare bucks, you are confined to third class.
This Adobe paywall is deeply discriminatory. It favors people and institutions able to pay Adobe for the almost cost free process of converting text to graphics and back again to text and discriminates against people who cannot afford Adobe PDF software, making it harder for less wealthy people to communicate efficiently with government and businesses.
What has triggered this complaint? I just now received a State of New Jersey government document in PDF format, hundreds of pages long. I cannot search that document for references to the term "executor". I am prevented from doing this because I am not paying the extortionate fee of $240 per year to the employees and shareholders of Adobe for the ability to convert graphics to text, which is now an ancient technology at least 30 years old.
It is a shameful ripoff. Governments and businesses should distribute all text in formats that can be read with free software such as Notepad and Libre Office, unless that text is for sale, and needs copyright protection.
The PDF part of Adobe would then be restricted to where it should be restricted... to documents that are for sale where the distributors do not want people to be able to easily copy or search part or whole of the text.