Is there any GOOD way of copy protecting PDF books so people can’t send them to whoever they want. I’m looking for something very simple (for the customer), as most of our customers for these PDF books are blind/visually impaired. Having to go to a website to register and enter codes just isn’t going to work.
Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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You can require a password to open a PDF – is that what you want?
Another approach is to “watermark” each page with “Prepared for
Customer Name”, I’ve bought several e-books that worked like that.
Walter
On Jun 18, 2009, at 5:40 PM, wurliuchi wrote:
Is there any GOOD way of copy protecting PDF books so people can’t
send them to whoever they want. I’m looking for something very
simple (for the customer), as most of our customers for these PDF
books are blind/visually impaired. Having to go to a website to
register and enter codes just isn’t going to work.Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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Many of our customers are newly blind and aren’t too savvy about computers or screen readers, so using a password can really screw them up. Another problem we have is people send their friends the file and give them their password (if it has one). This happens to us a lot. They really do distribute the files out of ignorance. We hear things like, “Oh, I sent that book to my friend and she just loved it and she sent it to all her blind friends.” H-e-l-l-o!
A watermark to a blind person doesn’t mean much.
Thanks.
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I guess it all comes down to how much you want to inconvenience your
users. Maybe you should give the book away and look for revenue
elsewhere?
Walter
On Jun 18, 2009, at 6:31 PM, wurliuchi wrote:
Many of our customers are newly blind and aren’t too savvy about
computers or screen readers, so using a password can really screw
them up. Another problem we have is people send their friends the
file and give them their password (if it has one). This happens to
us a lot. They really do distribute the files out of ignorance. We
hear things like, “Oh, I sent that book to my friend and she just
loved it and she sent it to all her blind friends.” H-e-l-l-o!A watermark to a blind person doesn’t mean much.
Thanks.
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On 18 Jun 2009, at 23:31, wurliuchi wrote:
A watermark to a blind person doesn’t mean much.
How about providing a free download of maybe just a chapter of the
book? That way, people can sample it for free, share it with friends,
etc, but have to pay to download the full version later.
Obviously, it won’t stop people sharing the full password-protected
version, but it will give people a chance to try before they buy.
Heather
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Hmm. Having a customer pay for a book is inconvenient to you? That doesn’t make sense. A lot more time is spent on writing and putting together a book than websites, and you suggest we give them away? Give me a break, Walter. That is very insulting. I still think you’re a good guy, though. 
On 19 Jun 2009, 11:12 am, waltd wrote:
I guess it all comes down to how much you want to inconvenience your
users. Maybe you should give the book away and look for revenue
elsewhere?Walter
On Jun 18, 2009, at 6:31 PM, wurliuchi wrote:
Many of our customers are newly blind and aren’t too savvy about
computers or screen readers, so using a password can really screw
them up. Another problem we have is people send their friends the
file and give them their password (if it has one). This happens to
us a lot. They really do distribute the files out of ignorance. We
hear things like, “Oh, I sent that book to my friend and she just
loved it and she sent it to all her blind friends.” H-e-l-l-o!A watermark to a blind person doesn’t mean much.
Thanks.
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On 19 Jun 2009, at 13:20, wurliuchi wrote:
Hmm. Having a customer pay for a book is inconvenient to you? That
doesn’t make sense. A lot more time is spent on writing and putting
together a book than websites, and you suggest we give them away?
Give me a break, Walter. That is very insulting. I still think
you’re a good guy, though.
Actually, it’s not a totally off-the-wall idea; have a look at Seth
Godin’s Blog at:
You won’t see what I’m talking about immediately on the front page,
but Seth talks a lot of good sense in his blog which a lot of people
who are still in the ‘old’ marketing mindset (think Tesco and
advertising agencies) would do well to heed.
best wishes,
Paul Bradforth
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No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. You said that the usual methods
of blocking casual piracy – passwords, watermarks – were either
inconvenient or not a barrier to your customers. If they don’t get
that your time is worth something, and work around your barriers or go
elsewhere, then maybe you’re looking for the funding to pay for your
not inconsiderable effort from the wrong people. I was never
suggesting that you give your work away, just change who pays you for
it. Blind people qualify for government assistance in most countries.
Companies that perform services for blind people can get grants from
governments. That sort of thing…
If you want to pursue the idea of locking up the books, you could make
the download link expire. They pay you, then have X days to download
from the machine they paid on, after which the link goes dead. Use
LinkLok or roll your own expiration system as a part of your commerce
program. Make the files live in a non-public directory, then use a
“getter” to stream the file contents to authenticated customer. If
you’d like some code that does this last part, I have tons of examples
here in PHP.
Walter
On Jun 19, 2009, at 8:20 AM, wurliuchi wrote:
Hmm. Having a customer pay for a book is inconvenient to you? That
doesn’t make sense. A lot more time is spent on writing and putting
together a book than websites, and you suggest we give them away?
Give me a break, Walter. That is very insulting. I still think
you’re a good guy, though.
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It occurred to me after I wrote this that it does nothing to solve
your problem of pass-along piracy.
That’s the problem with selling an e-book. With a physical book,
there’s just the one that I’ve bought at my local independent
bookseller (or ordered online from the MegaGigantiCorp). It has
physical presence and absence. If I loan it to my neighbor, I have to
wait until he’s done with it to read it again or loan it to someone
else.
Digital media have no such physicality. The copy is indistinguishable
from the original (if such a thing can be said to exist at all). Even
if you password-protect it, as you noted, the user can simply pass
along the password with the e-book. The same holds true for you. You
have tool-up costs of $A Whole Lot, and incremental costs of
manufacture of nearly $0.
The thing to think about then is the fact that all of your money/time/
investment is up front, so try to seek a payment model where you
recoup your investment as quickly and as monolithically as possible.
Incremental payments work fine for something you can confine and meter
out, like your water or gas bills do. They’re less effective for
something which has nearly infinite capacity for duplication without
effort once the original is “in the wild”.
Finally, think about your customers here. If you treat them like
thieves (which is how the RIAA treats its customers) then they will
act like thieves. If you make it easy and convenient to act honorably
(like iTunes does) then you make a brazilian dollars.
I don’t have a total solution for you here, but I think that you may
be trying too hard to stop something that is not (strictly speaking)
taking money from your plate.
Take the shareware model for an example. Most people who use it do not
pay for it. Those who do are the exception, and pay the bills for all
the freeloaders. Yet the prices are low. The authors realize that
their cost of duplication is nearly zero, and the freeloaders
constitute their marketing and sales force.
Something else to think about…
Walter
On Jun 19, 2009, at 8:54 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
If you want to pursue the idea of locking up the books, you could
make the download link expire.
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I’m not positive without some research, but isn’t it also possible to password protect the actual pdf file itself? I know you can keep them from being edited or copied from, but not sure about preventing them from opening.
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Yes, it is possible to require a password to open the PDF. Same
security area settings as for controlling what can done with the PDF.
Joe
On Jun 19, 2009, at 10:28 AM, chuckamuck wrote:
I’m not positive without some research, but isn’t it also possible
to password protect the actual pdf file itself? I know you can keep
them from being edited or copied from, but not sure about preventing
them from opening.
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Yes, that was one of the suggestions I offered already. The problem is
that the password is locked into the PDF, and so if the password
travels with the PDF (as in the case of casual piracy that the OP was
referring to) then there’s really no benefit added to the equation.
Plus, then you punish everyone for the actions of a few – everybody
has to type in a password to read the book, every time they want to
read it.
Walter
On Jun 19, 2009, at 11:28 AM, chuckamuck wrote:
I’m not positive without some research, but isn’t it also possible
to password protect the actual pdf file itself? I know you can keep
them from being edited or copied from, but not sure about preventing
them from opening.
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On Jun 19, 2009, at 6:42 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
The authors realize that their cost of duplication is nearly zero, and
the freeloaders constitute their marketing and sales force.
Very interesting. I never thought of it that way.
Richard
Richard Houston
Architectural Art
http://www.richardhoustonart.com
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On 19 Jun 2009, at 16:28, chuckamuck wrote:
I’m not positive without some research, but isn’t it also possible
to password protect the actual pdf file itself? I know you can keep
them from being edited or copied from, but not sure about preventing
them from opening.
The latest version of Apple’s ‘Pages’ allows you to prevent opening
without a password, and I’m sure Acrobat does too, but as the password
will be passed along with the PDF by ‘pirates’, there isn’t a lot of
point.
best wishes,
Paul Bradforth
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On 19 Jun 2009, at 16:33, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
Yes, that was one of the suggestions I offered already. The problem
is that the password is locked into the PDF, and so if the password
travels with the PDF (as in the case of casual piracy that the OP
was referring to) then there’s really no benefit added to the
equation. Plus, then you punish everyone for the actions of a few –
everybody has to type in a password to read the book, every time
they want to read it.
Precisely. I bought an ebook which requires a password and frankly,
although I have a perfectly good note of the password in a secure
place, it’s a pain in the arse to have to go and find it and enter it
every time I want to read it.
The thing to remember, I think, is that, while some folks may pass
your work around for nothing, this is the exception rather than the
rule; there is no ‘gang’ waiting to pounce on your hours of labour and
pass it round worldwide. Unless there is, of course, but unless your
name is Adobe or similar it’s unlikely. And even if it happens, if
your product is good enough, you’ll sell plenty anyway. Remember (just
like the record/movie industry forgot, or, rather, never realised [and
STILL haven’t!] ) that a pirated version is rarely a lost sale; the
people who steal it wouldn’t have bought it anyway, so you might as
well let them have a copy and help you out with free viral
advertising. They have a much bigger problem than you have: if your
product is excellent, you’ll sell hundreds/thousands/millions and
they’ll still be just thieves.
When I started out designing for the Web in 1998 or so, I used to ask
the same questions I still see on forums today: ‘How do I stop people
stealing my pictures/text/design?’. I was quickly told the answer by
numerous experts of the day: ‘You don’t. Anything you put on the Web
is fair game. If you don’t want it stolen, don’t put it up’. I found
it curiously liberating, and it had the side effect of teaching me the
glorious nature of the Web. Since then, I haven’t given two hoots who
steals anything from me. With that attitude, you can do anything. I
wonder, though, why I haven’t … but maybe that’s another story.
best wishes,
Paul Bradforth
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On 19 Jun 2009, at 16:44, Richard Houston wrote:
On Jun 19, 2009, at 6:42 AM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
The authors realize that their cost of duplication is nearly zero,
and the freeloaders constitute their marketing and sales force.Very interesting. I never thought of it that way.
Read Seth’s Blog, the one I referred to earlier!
best wishes,
Paul Bradforth
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On 19 Jun 2009, 1:42 pm, waltd wrote:
It occurred to me after I wrote this that it does nothing to solve
your problem of pass-along piracy.That’s the problem with selling an e-book. With a physical book,
there’s just the one that I’ve bought at my local independent
bookseller (or ordered online from the MegaGigantiCorp). It has
physical presence and absence. If I loan it to my neighbor, I have to
wait until he’s done with it to read it again or loan it to someone
else.Digital media have no such physicality. The copy is indistinguishable
from the original (if such a thing can be said to exist at all). Even
if you password-protect it, as you noted, the user can simply pass
along the password with the e-book. The same holds true for you. You
have tool-up costs of $A Whole Lot, and incremental costs of
manufacture of nearly $0.The thing to think about then is the fact that all of your money/time/
investment is up front, so try to seek a payment model where you
recoup your investment as quickly and as monolithically as possible.
Incremental payments work fine for something you can confine and meter
out, like your water or gas bills do. They’re less effective for
something which has nearly infinite capacity for duplication without
effort once the original is “in the wild”.Finally, think about your customers here. If you treat them like
thieves (which is how the RIAA treats its customers) then they will
act like thieves. If you make it easy and convenient to act honorably
(like iTunes does) then you make a brazilian dollars.I don’t have a total solution for you here, but I think that you may
be trying too hard to stop something that is not (strictly speaking)
taking money from your plate.Take the shareware model for an example. Most people who use it do not
pay for it. Those who do are the exception, and pay the bills for all
the freeloaders. Yet the prices are low. The authors realize that
their cost of duplication is nearly zero, and the freeloaders
constitute their marketing and sales force.Something else to think about…
Walter
Thank you, Walter. Very helpful. I’ve been bouncing this ball in my head for years now and I’ve come up with some of the same thoughts as you.
As a publishing company we’ve seen it all–Churches making unauthorized photocopies of our books and passing them out to their congregation and their classrooms (hey, ask us first and we’ll probably say yes). Another publishing company completely ripping off one of our books (layout, cover, everything) and selling it as their own (that one got the lawyers involved). There are many other examples, and I’m sure there are some we don’t know about. It gets to you after awhile and you just want to give up, but if you don’t protect yourself you get ripped off even more.
We’re very good to our customers. That’s why I don’t want to make it hard for them to access any of our books. After fifteen years of print (which I love), we are just now getting into ebooks. My partner (our main author) has lost most of her eyesight. That’s how we got into this part of it. We’ve thought and talked about not protecting our ebooks at all, and even though that seems like the easiest thing to do, we’re not sure it’s the right thing to do.
Thanks again. And thanks to others who have replied as well. All food for thought.
Still processing…
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We have come to a conclusion. The files will be stored in a download vault that is supplied by our shopping cart provider. After an online purchase, a user name and password is emailed automatically to the customer so they can download the file from the vault. We are not adding any security to the file itself, except that it cannot be modified (pages cannot be added or removed). The first page will be a Copyright page explaining that the file is for their use only and it is not to be distributed by print or any digital means. Simple and friendly. Two lines ought to do it.
I think that’s easy and fair and enough.
Thank you for your ideas and advice.
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Sometime around 20/6/09 (at 17:58 -0400) wurliuchi said:
it cannot be modified (pages cannot be added or removed). The first
page will be a Copyright page explaining that the file is for their
use only
Sounds like a good and realistic approach, especially given the way
the problems seemed to be largely through simple ignorance about
copyright responsibilities. I hope this helps.
k
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