Question Do Files Degrade From Viewing Only?

[Daniel8419]

1. Assuming that the hardware is brand new and proven 100% functional, does anybody know if Adobe Illustrator's files will degrade only from viewing them without making any edits, changes, resavings? Or for that matter, is there any adobe product that will cause file degradation only from viewing it without making any edits, changes, or resaving? A lead at work says that it will but I disagree with this.

2. Also, when copying a file (e.g. .pdf, .jpg, or .mp3), then making a copy of the copy, and then making yet another copy of the last copied file, and then repeating this process multiple times, would it ever cause the last copy to degrade? The lead also says yes, but I disagree. The way I explained this is that when we copy files, we're duplicating 0s and 1s, and as along as there is no hardware or software damage or issues, the last copy will always be the same as the original file.

 

[Major_Trouble]

Your lead is a little confused when it come to digital media. He's probably used to old fashioned scanners where if you take a copy of a copy of an original it will degrade. You are correct. Copying 1 & 0 s does not degrade anything. Files corruption though is another thing all together (always backup important files).