Crap subject line, but if I knew what this is called I probably wouldn't need to post!

A client is talking about a great online tool that they have seen which allows you to search across a number of PDf files and create a new custom PDF containing snippets and blocks of the source file.  They one they have seen then lets you purchase just those snippets.   The idea is that if you are selling PDFs you can sell just parts of them instead. 

The solution they are looking at ( http://bit.ly/glKBZ7 ) seems technically very good, but there are some drawbacks on the business side of thing.  We're wondering whether there are other options out there.

I thought that a few people here might be in the digital download market and either a) Knew of some alternatives, or b) might just find this interesting.

that is really, uh, interesting

I've always used iCopyright in the past.  The have a superior backend system and excellent support.  Michael O'Donnell founded and used to run it and he is the go-to guy for all that sort of stuff.

Thanks eurotrash. Icopyright looks like it might provide some food for thought. Not sure out of quite what they are asking about, but that doesn't mean out isnt what they need.

Gurtie: there is more to life than chocolate and search you know :p

I meant *interesting* not <sarcasm> interesting </>

Apologies : Sometimes I judge people by my own low standards.  I generally just assume sarcasm by default.

Had a better look at iCopyright. Very interesting, but definitely not right for this project.

You could always roll your own. Xapian (xapian.org) will search PDFs. SetaPDF-Merger API from Setasign (setasign.de) allows you to make a single PDF from selected pages from one or multiple documents.

Have discussed home grown - none of the actual functionality looks that tough from scratch even without external services.  Usual problems though: budget and timescale.  Although the cost really only equates to a few extra sales (papers are £500-£3k each) I don't think that front loading the costs are going to wash.  It is going in as an alternative though.