Patent ID: 8132228

Claim:
An electronic document conversion device for making a format conversion from an electronic document of a first electronic document format, which supports at least one security policy having certain specifications, into an electronic document of a second electronic document format different from the first electronic document format, comprising: inheritance judgment means for judging whether or not a security policy set in the electronic document of the first electronic document format is inheritable, with the same settings, by a security policy and specifications supported by the second electronic document format; replacement judgment means for judging whether or not the set security policy is inheritable using a replacing process, if said inheritance judgment means judges that the set security policy is not inheritable with the same settings; conversion means for converting the electronic document into the second electronic document format by setting the set security policy to be inherited with the same security policy settings, if said inheritance judgment means judges that the security policy is inheritable, and setting the set security policy to be inherited using the replacing process if said replacement judgment means judges that the security policy is inheritable using a replacing process; and stop means for stopping the conversion of the electronic document into the second electronic document format if said replacement judgment means judges that the security policy is not inheritable; wherein at least one of said inheritance judgment means, said replacement judgment means, said conversion means and said stop means is implemented using a processor.