Dear Editor:
My paralegal was in for a shock when she tried to create a text field in one of many USCIS forms. The Abode Acrobat 6.0 told her to contact the USCIS to obtain the permission necessary to add a text field. Obviously, the people at Adobe never had to deal with the USCIS. I've contacted a friend of mine, a patent attorney in Los Angeles, and asked whether creating a text field on a government issued form creates any copyright infringement issue. He was just as lost and couldn't figure out why anyone would need to obtain a permission from a government to fill out a form. Adobe is obviously trying to mimic its rival such as Macromedia and is trying to prevent end-users from easily altering the original work/file. Trying to prevent hackers and others who have no regard for copyright of an original artist/programmer is novel. However, preventing attorneys and other users from create a text-field on a government issued forms make no sense. It's just plain stupid and very annoying. Adobe gets my vote for the dumbest developer of the year. Hopefully, other developers have not lost their sanity in zeal to protect the artistic value of the USCIS forms and create a software and new standard for document viewing that all of us can use.
Matthew S. Park, Esq.
Park & Associates, P.C.
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