I would like to be able to embed a live web-hosted image into a PDF
file, so that when the PDF file is loaded up, it fetches the image
from the web.
 
How can this be done, ideally with Adobe Acrobat, or some other
software?
 
The purpose of this is to create a 'web bug' to track readers of the
document in order to discover to what extent people are forwarding a
private copyrighted document without permission.

I would be happy to consider other methods of communicating between
the PDF document and the web server. But please don't recommend that
we attach the PDF document to an HTML mail which itself contains the
hosted image - because that is what we are already doing :)

Thanks.

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Request for Question Clarification by webadept-ga on 11 Sep 2003 06:57 PDT

Hi, 

The whole purpose of the PDF format is a non changeable format. This
is why PDF became so popular so fast. A PDF document looks the same,
exactly, on any Windows, Mac, and even (at times) Unix systems. The
sizing is the main thing that stays the same, allowing Government
documents and forms to be created in a computer format, which when
printed out would be the same size and shape every where. I understand
the desire to create something dynamic inside the document but there
is nothing that could "fire off" the tracker, even if we could put it
in there. It is an non-executable file type.

Allowing such a object to be embedded inside a PDF opens the door to
virus attacks as well, because unlike an HTML document, the PDF is not
limited in a browser at all. If it could "run" anything, then, it
could run just about "anything".

This has been a problem with copyrighted material from the beginning
on the Internet. Several ideas have sprung up which have still failed
to meet both the need to transfer documents from one computer to
another (for example, from my office computer to my home so I can
enjoy it there) and not allow the transfer between other people, or at
least the tracking of that document to other people.

I think the closest any format could get right now, which would allow
access to the most clients, and be trackable at the same time would be
a swf format, or Flash in lay mans terms. This allows code which could
access an Internet file, with error checking so it doesn't freak out
when there is no Internet connection, such as on a laptop in a cafe
some where, for example, and the fonts can be made so that they are
readable. It doesn't solve the transfer-between-people problem,
because the content can be ripped out pretty easy, but it does give
you the tracking, and can run on a stand-alone player, on the client.
There is some size and shape control between various screen sizes, and
it would run on a Windows as well as a Mac, though the Unix/Linux
systems may have problems with it running at all.

The Dynamic PDF is a one way thing. A PDF can be dynamically created,
but is static once created.

If you would like more information on creating a SWF file which would
meet your needs, just let us know.


webadept-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by webadept-ga on 11 Sep 2003 07:16 PDT

Well shut my mouth.. apparently a virus which can execute, can be
inside a PDF, though from my search so far, it can't do much.

http://www.infosatellite.com/news/2001/08/a0801pdf_virus.html

http://www.makeitsimple.com/article.php?sid=266

Also it only is available inside the Acrobat program, not the Reader
Program, those two are different. The reader program doesn't recognize
attachments at all, the code simply isn't there. So the person would
have to have the full Acrobat program for the embeded program to fire.

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-271267.html?legacy=cnet

If your tracker was only needed to fire with those running the full
version of Acrobat, then it might be possible to create a "ping"
program in there, but downloading a file still wouldn't be possible.

webadept-ga

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Clarification of Question by horseradish-ga on 11 Sep 2003 07:35 PDT

Thanks for your full response. It is interesting that the virus works
on the full Acrobat - I can see how that would happen - but this needs
something which would work on the Acrobat Reader. Shame that it won't
work, but there we go.

Thanks for your posting.