A way to prevent people from sharing a PDF form?

[DigitalChickster]

Hi all! I'm pretty sure this can't be done, but I have a PDF form I designed for a client. She wants to be sure her clients don't share it with other people. Is there a way to prevent this? I can't imagine how that would work... but I thought I'd ask. Let me know if there are any questions you have that would help clarify what I'm asking. 

Thanks! 

[try67]

The only way to do it is by applying DRM protection to the file, which requires the user to have the proper credentials (and to be connected to the internet) when opening the file. This is a very expensive solution, though, probably in the 5-6 digits range.

[DigitalChickster]

Thank you so much! I will pass that along. I'm sure she doesn't want to do that! 

[Thom Parker]

Actually there is a simple solution to this.

Have the client send the public key for a self-signed certificate. This process can be automated in Acrobat with a script, but it's easy to do it manually as well.  

Then encrypt the PDF with the public key. Now the client will be the only one who can open the PDF. Problem solved. 

Here's an article that explains how to create your own self-signed digital ID/Certificate.

https://www.pdfscripting.com/public/How_to_Create_a_SelfSigned_Digital_ID_in_Acrobat.cfm

[try67]

Can't the certificate be shared by the recipient with someone else?

[Thom Parker]

If they want to share thier private key, yes.  But its also difficult for most people to do this.   You can't just email the private key, you have to find the storage location and manually email the whole digital cert file. 

If you wanted to make it harder for them to share the private key, require the client to purchase a certificate, so they have some skin in it.  

Like many security solutions it's more of a level of difficulty for defeating it, than any kind of absolute lock.

How worth it is it for the client to cheat? If it's worth a lot, then spend the money on a DRM solution.  If not, then do something cheaper that just makes it difficult. 

For example, how do you protect your scripts?  Can't your customers just share them?  It happens with my tools all the time. I know cause the cheaters call me wanting support. 

[try67]

Sure, that can happen... I won't go into the details of the tools I've developed to protect my IP, but of course there are ways around anything, unless you spend big bucks to protect it, especially when dealing with non-compiled scripts, as I'm sure you're well aware.