Protective Measures for Licensing an Interactive PDF Form

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
June 17, 2022
2 replies
923 views

I am looking to license an interactive PDF form I recently completed and was wondering if there is any way I can prevent a licensee from copying and using the interactive PDF form on more computer devices than the license allows or are we on the honor system here? Thank you ahead of time.

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Thom Parker

Community Expert

DRM is an "absolute" solution, but there techniques that are much better than the honor system. It is possible to use a server to active, and count activations of a document. Activation would allow the scripts on document to operate. Since this is a scripting solution it is not 100% secure, but if the code was obfuscated, then untangling it would require more time and skill than nearly 100% of users would be willing to put into it.

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

boilermaker73Author

Inspiring

Thank you Thom for the additional feedback.

boilermaker73Author

Inspiring

Thom, in reference to 'if the code was obfuscated' does this imply that I would be unable to implement any kind of password restriction to the PDF form to prevent one from accessing/viewing the scripts used in my PDF form?

try67

Community Expert

The only way to achieve that is with DRM technology, which is very expensive to implement, and restricts the way your file can be used quite severely.

boilermaker73Author

Inspiring

Given your reply, it looks as though I have to rely on the honor system not to mention I don't want to have any restrictions related to using the form. What say you Try67?

try67

Community Expert

Pretty much, yes.

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