Being a trusting soul the only thing I would rely on would be the documents held by the MP to which the public have access on request, after the filing process.
You must admit the prospect of two sides arguing for ten years over documents that turn out to have been bootlegged to suit a few agenda's is a real gasser. I wonder if the MP could see which way it was going and took the unusual step of issuing the CD for purely mischievous purposes?
Well it is plausible.
I doubt that there was any mischievous purpose. In theory, post-ruling files could be accessed by "interested parties" (although I'm not certain who qualifies).
In view of the media frenzy, issuing the files on a CD may simply have been an expedient way of getting rid of the media rabble as fast as possible, as opposed to having to deal with a potentially huge queue for a photocopier or other means of access.
My understanding is that making the files accessible, post-ruling, is part of Portugal's post-dictatorship transparency measures, but the idea was that journalists could report on the contents, but they weren't intended to be uploaded. The fact that they were is history.
