Why, in an age where paperless offices and electronic archives are fully feasible, must important mechanical or engineering blueprints still be on paper? Naturally, there's a reason for this.
The greatest advantage of paper archives is their authenticity and reliability. Particularly with blueprints, once the final result is set on paper, it becomes quite difficult to alter. Even if changes are made, they are easily discernible. Take aircraft design blueprints, for example. Once the final design is decided, it's impossible to make alterations. If changes must be made, a completely new set of blueprints has to be drafted.
This gives paper blueprints the advantage of originality, which is lacking in electronic archives.
No matter if these blueprints are stolen or seized, they are certainly not obtained through legitimate means. How can their authenticity be guaranteed? Only with original blueprints.
