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Copy protect eBooks and PDF documents with DRM options
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PDF Protection The most secure solution for copy protected PDF document, e-book and image distribution.

How to copy protect PDF documents

PDF is a commonly used document format. It is very popular because most computers will have a PDF reader installed, Adobe Reader being the most commonly used. PDF readers are generally free to download without any license restrictions so publishing a document in PDF, as opposed to MS Word which is only available through the installation of a licensed Microsoft Office product, makes more sense because it will be available to a larger audience.

PDF was originally designed to be a most portable document format that is supported on the most computers as possible. But people want to not only distribute globally but also protect these documents which is actually a catch 22 because PDF wasn't designed to be secure. Sure, Adobe Acrobat and other PDF makers do include some protection options but they are mostly superficial and should not be employed for a security critical project.

The options included in standard PDF creation include password protection, expiry date protection, print protection and more. But what good are these "protective" measures when they can be so easily reversed? One only has to do a search on the Internet for "protect PDF" to see numerous PDF protection products which only offer superficial protection and can be captured and copied in many ways. Even their password protection is inferior and vulnerable to many free programs available for extracting passwords, and others for decompiling PDF to extract all  components including images, text and other media. The fact that people still use such insecure applications is mostly due to naivety, and trust in advertising lies.

Portable Document Format

PDF stands for "Portable Document Format", a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. Adobe PDF represents two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software and operating system. Consequently it has become a universal document format and as with all useful technology, it has been plagiarized by numerous manufacturers to provide a huge array of PDF readers and creation tools. However they all have one thing in common and that is the PostScript, the programming language, used for generating the layout and graphics.

PDF is easily decompiled so to properly protect a PDF document it needs to be secured by encryption that is not easily undone. But if it is now encrypted it will not be readable in your run of the mill PDF readers that will not be able to decrypt the new PDF and display its contents. So now we have a new approach, an encrypted PDF and a custom reader that can decrypt it for display.

Now there are many PDF solutions that do provide an encryption tool and a custom reader. But all of these are merely encryption/decryption tools, and although that do offer improved security for password protection, they do not prevent the document from being copied or redistributed.

Protect PDF with password

There is free software available for extracting PDF passwords, so for password protection to be secure the PDF document needs to be encrypted for use in a custom PDF reader.

Protect PDF with expiry date

Setting a date on a PDF document for the document to expire, after which the PDF document will become inaccessible, is a common practice. But it is also a protective technique that is far too easy to exploit because every PDF maker has used the computer's date for time checking, and one only has to set their computer's date back in time to rejuvenate an expired document. So to properly protect PDF expiration an independent time check is required, consulting a timer server online.

Prevent PDF printing

To prevent the printing of a PDF can only be done by using a custom reader, and ideally one that uses an encrypted PDF document to prevent its contents from being extracted. Limiting the number of prints cannot be maintained and remain hack-free without utilizing an online database for validation checks. Any PDF reader trying to police its own security as a standalone application can be easily hacked because it will be keeping its records on the user's computer, and even if these are stored in the computer's registry they are easily accessed and can be modified. Any updatable record maintained by the PDF reader can be hacked.

Prevent PDF copy

Preventing a PDF document from being copied is a most difficult task. The PDF document can of course be duplicated as its original form but the prevention of copying by taking a screenshot requires what most PDF readers do not posses, and that's the ability to protect the PDF from Printscreen and screen capture software.

Prevent PDF redistribution

Once a person has a copy of your PDF document there is nothing preventing him from redistributing it by sending a copy to others, that is if its your usual PDF reader cum encryption solution. To prevent the redistribution of  PDF documents to other persons who may not be authorized for their use, you need a PDF reader that is DRM enabled. Digital Rights Management (DRM) checks the access privileges of a user before allowing the document to be opened.

PDF Document Security Summation

CopySafe PDF does what no other "PDF protection" can do... actually protect your PDF from all save and copy including screen capture! Grasping this simple and obvious fact may help you to realize that all other solutions are falsely advertised and that while they may have the audacity to list similar features, they cannot deliver anything that matches ArtistScope security strength.

To properly protect PDF documents you need to use CopySafe PDF which was specially designed to be absolutely copy-proof by utilizing the CopySafe Runtime which is the only solution proven to be safe from all Printscreen and screen capture software. CopySafe PDF caters for all of the above mentioned deficiencies plus more:
 
  • Custom PDF reader for viewing documents using unbreakable encryption
  • PDF document cannot be decompiled to extract its contents
  • Option for setting a password that cannot be extracted
  • Option to prevent printing of the document
  • Option to set an expiry date validated by an independent time server
  • Prevent copy by taking a screenshot using Printscreen
  • Prevent copy by screen capture software for taking a screenshot
  • Option to prevent display on remotely viewed computers
CopySafe PDF Reader is DRM enabled which means that it can be used in conjunction with a third party solution for the management of access privileges. CopySafe PDF is 100% compatible with ArtistScope DRM where the PDF Protector is built into the application and operates server side for the conversion and encryption of PDF documents uploaded to your web site from a web page.


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Products:

ArtistScope CD
ArtistScope DRM
ArtistScope Site Protection
CopySafe PDF Protector
CopySafe Web
Link Protection
Scroll Image
Secure Image Pro
Zoom Image


  • Protect copyright
  • Protect documents
  • Protect HTML
  • Protect images
  • Protect links
  • Protect PDF
  • Protect web pages
  • Prevent capture
  • Prevent copying
  • Prevent drag and drop
  • Prevent forwarding
  • Prevent image theft
  • Prevent piracy
  • Prevent printing
  • Prevent Printscreen
  • Prevent redistribution
  • Prevent saving
  • Prevent screenshot

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