First of all, I was under the understanding that the PDF document format was fully documented in the white papers on adobe's website. If I am correct (I'll have to check), then it isn't "cracking" at all, it is simply using the data in the documents to provide a useful service.

Second, this is for a client, who WANTS to have their pdf documents searched. I'll be very disappointed if the pdf format is a closed standard, but I believe you are wrong.

Third, there are already a number of utilites out there that convert from PDF to another format, such as PS and txt, which I doubt are the result of reverse engineering.

So, I belive my question is valid, though unfortunely I'm not finding a lot of answers. Please do feel free to correct me on any of the above points though.

Mel