I disagree for a number of reasons. First, I think the reason most people release files as PDF documents is because they have a need for precise formatting which HTML doesn't give. This includes much better print control. Second, PDF doesn't protect text at all; you can select text in even Adobe's PDF viewers for copying. The only viewers out there really designed for such protection are e-book readers. Lastly, I don't think it's the domain of Monks to judge someone's intentions with a project. I'd say that if you don't feel comfortable giving advice to someone, just don't give it. I especially think it's inappropriate to come down condemning someone without any knowledge of how the project will be used. I'd be inclined to think the OP intends to write an engine for searching through PDFs on an intranet, given the insanity of indexing anything more (in Perl, no less). All the above just MHO.