archiving with xml

[Rick Marshall <rjm@zenucom.com>]

i've been thinking of archiving with xml, but i'm going to stick with 
pdf's for documents at the moment.

the discussion on xlinks, and rendering etc has left me with this problem:

if we archive with xml, what is the legal status of the "document"? eg 
say i archive a document as xml, (an invoice for example) and later 
change the rendering algorithm. now when i print another copy and go to 
court to collect some money the debtor turns up with an earlier rendered 
version and they aren't the same "look".  i know and a court would know 
the substance is the same, but would i have a problem with my record 
keeping because the format that people read can change? it's an 
integrity issue. and how do auditors cope? or are they solving the 
problem by developing audit standards in the xml accounting stuff that 
would make the rendering format inconsequential provided all the content 
was rendered (and how would they know that - if say i left out a 
discount in a later rendering, but it was in the oriiginal?)?

i understand this is a country by country issue, but is it being 
considered anywhere?

rick
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