Enhanced protection for pdf documents

[Helmut33556138gdb1]

Enhanced protection for pdf documents

I am the author of a technical textbook. Up to now, I have had one edition printed, stored it at home and sent the copies to customers. I no longer want to continue this procedure, but would like to replace it by individually selling and sending a PDF document. It is 15 megabytes in size.

I have convinced myself that PDFs can be password-protected and that individual options such as printing or copying content can be locked. The numerous tips on how to do this are far outnumbered by the number of tips on how the owner of the password can remove all these locks so that the work can be redistributed unhindered. I have convinced myself that these tips work. This kind of "protection" is so easy to remove that I don't feel my copyrights are protected.

My question: Can I protect pdf documents in such a way as to achieve a level of protection similar to that of commercially available ebooks? I would be grateful for links to instructions.

Regards

[Abambo]

You will need a DRM system. If you want to protect your PDF files similarly to e-books, you need to use the same technology. There is no such thing than a free meal. The protection to your documents is what you apply to it. Search for DRM. https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/digital-rights-management

[try67]

If you apply both a file-open and a file-edit policy (using different passwords, of course) it will provide a pretty good level of protection. Of course, nothing can prevent someone from sharing the file with the password and give it to someone else... And one will always be able to take screenshots (or photos) of the pages to copy them if they wanted to, but that's true for everything. In short, there's no 100% secure solution. It's a balance of how much you're willing to spend vs. how strong of a protection you want to have.

[Helmut33556138gdb1]

Many thanks for your answers!
I have now convinced myself that any protection can be removed with relatively little effort and knowledge. The apps that allow protection also offer to "crack" it in the same menu, a bizarre, schizophrenic offer as I understand it. I think the (by no means perfect) solution for me will be to protect the pdf with a user and owner password and also individualize it with the buyer's name and email address or account number.

[Helmut33556138gdb1]

One further question: Could you kindly recommend an offline app for user and owner password definition? If it is no freeware it should be a one time purchase.

[try67]

Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020.

[Helmut33556138gdb1]

Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020 has a prohibitive price for my use case. I tested the affordable paid product Coolmuster PDF loose (2.5.7), created a strong user password and an even stronger owner password and "protected" a PDF document on a trial basis.

I was very pleased that I needed the user password to open it in Acrobat Reader and that I could not copy any content.

Then I ran the toolbox remove password protection of the freeware pdf24 and lo and behold: with one click I had  a pdf without password and any copy and print obstruction.

My conclusion: This file protection provider delivers bluff software. They collect "money for nothing.  I keep my hands off them. Would you expect that any other software is different?

Regards

[Helmut33556138gdb1]

Edit: The software I used was Coolmuster PDF Locker 2.5.7 via https://www.vibosoft.com/pdf-locker.html

Sorry for the misleading name!

 

[try67]

No, this is a limitation of the security policy of the PDF format. You'll probably experience the same with any file, unfortunately.