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
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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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