# Legal and citable content

Legal texts are cited to the paragraph. In bitmark every article, paragraph
and footnote is a bit with a permanent address, so a citation can point to
exactly the text it means, in exactly the edition it means.

## Pinpoint citation

```bitmark
[.article]
[@customerId: art_8_para_2 ]
[%Art. 8 para. 2]
The controller must inform the person concerned, as required by (+xref:https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2022/491/en#art_6|provider:fedlex)Art. 6 FADP(-xref).
```

- `@customerId` keeps the publisher's own ID for the paragraph, so a
  citation made against the publisher's system still finds it.
- `[%…]` is the label readers cite: "Art. 8 para. 2".
- A reference to another document keeps its official address and names the
  provider that resolves it.

A bit can also record where it sits in the original source (`@sourceRL`) and
the box it covers on the page (`@sourceBB`), so an answer can show the
original page next to the text.

## Editions

A new edition keeps the IDs of unchanged provisions; a reader matches old
and new bit by bit, and `bitmark diff` shows what changed between the two.
Amendments and consolidated versions are diff layers on the base text; see
[Alias and diff books](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/alias-and-diff-books.md).