Restricting downloading a PDF from a website

Peter_Tucker · November 14, 2016, 5:17pm

Hi,

I think the subject explains what I need.

Is there a way to allow acres to view a PDF but not to be able to download it?

TIA

Best wishes Peter

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Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

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waltd · November 14, 2016, 6:41pm

No. In order to read a PDF, it must be downloaded to the browser’s cache. From there, it’s not protected in any way. What are you trying to accomplish, exactly?

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 12:17 PM, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Hi,

I think the subject explains what I need.

Is there a way to allow acres to view a PDF but not to be able to download it?

TIA

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

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Peter_Tucker1 · November 14, 2016, 6:45pm

Thanks Walter,

I’d like people to see the content of a PDF but not download or disseminate it.

I could print some JPEGs from the PDF and put them up instead, if I could stop those being downloaded?

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

On 14 Nov 2016, at 18:41, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:

No. In order to read a PDF, it must be downloaded to the browser’s cache. From there, it’s not protected in any way. What are you trying to accomplish, exactly?

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 12:17 PM, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Hi,

I think the subject explains what I need.

Is there a way to allow acres to view a PDF but not to be able to download it?

TIA

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

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waltd · November 14, 2016, 6:49pm

That’s not going to work either, for the same reason. Any content you show in a web browser is, by definition, downloaded to the browser. You can restrict who can see it, but once they do see it, you can’t control what they do with it later.

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 1:45 PM, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Thanks Walter,

I’d like people to see the content of a PDF but not download or disseminate it.

I could print some JPEGs from the PDF and put them up instead, if I could stop those being downloaded?

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

On 14 Nov 2016, at 18:41, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:

No. In order to read a PDF, it must be downloaded to the browser’s cache. From there, it’s not protected in any way. What are you trying to accomplish, exactly?

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 12:17 PM, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Hi,

I think the subject explains what I need.

Is there a way to allow acres to view a PDF but not to be able to download it?

TIA

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

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waltd · November 14, 2016, 7:01pm

One thing I have done in the past is to build PDF “watermarking” systems, so that copyrighted material could be marked as “Purchased by John Q. Public” on the bottom of each page. That goes a long way toward shaming casual infringers.

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 1:49 PM, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:

That’s not going to work either, for the same reason. Any content you show in a web browser is, by definition, downloaded to the browser. You can restrict who can see it, but once they do see it, you can’t control what they do with it later.

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 1:45 PM, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Thanks Walter,

I’d like people to see the content of a PDF but not download or disseminate it.

I could print some JPEGs from the PDF and put them up instead, if I could stop those being downloaded?

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

On 14 Nov 2016, at 18:41, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:

No. In order to read a PDF, it must be downloaded to the browser’s cache. From there, it’s not protected in any way. What are you trying to accomplish, exactly?

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 12:17 PM, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Hi,

I think the subject explains what I need.

Is there a way to allow acres to view a PDF but not to be able to download it?

TIA

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

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Peter_Tucker1 · November 14, 2016, 7:05pm

So that sounds like there is no workable solution to this then?

I thought I’d remember from the list a while back there was an Action that limited downloading of images?

Thanks Walter for your help.

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

On 14 Nov 2016, at 18:45, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Thanks Walter,

I’d like people to see the content of a PDF but not download or disseminate it.

I could print some JPEGs from the PDF and put them up instead, if I could stop those being downloaded?

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

On 14 Nov 2016, at 18:41, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:

No. In order to read a PDF, it must be downloaded to the browser’s cache. From there, it’s not protected in any way. What are you trying to accomplish, exactly?

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 12:17 PM, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Hi,

I think the subject explains what I need.

Is there a way to allow acres to view a PDF but not to be able to download it?

TIA

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

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Update your subscriptions at:
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waltd · November 14, 2016, 7:07pm

There are all sorts of countermeasures to make it difficult for users to “right click and choose download”, but once you realize that the file is already in the browser’s cache – downloaded – you realize that there’s nothing you can honestly do.

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 2:05 PM, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

So that sounds like there is no workable solution to this then?

I thought I’d remember from the list a while back there was an Action that limited downloading of images?

Thanks Walter for your help.

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

On 14 Nov 2016, at 18:45, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Thanks Walter,

I’d like people to see the content of a PDF but not download or disseminate it.

I could print some JPEGs from the PDF and put them up instead, if I could stop those being downloaded?

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

On 14 Nov 2016, at 18:41, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:

No. In order to read a PDF, it must be downloaded to the browser’s cache. From there, it’s not protected in any way. What are you trying to accomplish, exactly?

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 12:17 PM, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Hi,

I think the subject explains what I need.

Is there a way to allow acres to view a PDF but not to be able to download it?

TIA

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

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Update your subscriptions at:
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Peter_Tucker1 · November 14, 2016, 11:30pm

Hi Walter,

Yup, it was worth a try, but I did not really hold out too much hope in a sensible solution.

Thanks for your input. I’ll pass on the [good!] news tomorrow.

Cheers P

Peter Tucker, Oxford UK - but mobile somewhere iP6

On 14 Nov 2016, at 19:07, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:

There are all sorts of countermeasures to make it difficult for users to “right click and choose download”, but once you realize that the file is already in the browser’s cache – downloaded – you realize that there’s nothing you can honestly do.

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 2:05 PM, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

So that sounds like there is no workable solution to this then?

I thought I’d remember from the list a while back there was an Action that limited downloading of images?

Thanks Walter for your help.

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

On 14 Nov 2016, at 18:45, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Thanks Walter,

I’d like people to see the content of a PDF but not download or disseminate it.

I could print some JPEGs from the PDF and put them up instead, if I could stop those being downloaded?

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

On 14 Nov 2016, at 18:41, Walter Lee Davis email@hidden wrote:

No. In order to read a PDF, it must be downloaded to the browser’s cache. From there, it’s not protected in any way. What are you trying to accomplish, exactly?

Walter

On Nov 14, 2016, at 12:17 PM, Peter Tucker email@hidden wrote:

Hi,

I think the subject explains what I need.

Is there a way to allow acres to view a PDF but not to be able to download it?

TIA

Best wishes Peter

–

Peter Tucker • Oxford, UK • email@hidden

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Update your subscriptions at:
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Noel_Sergeant · November 15, 2016, 12:19am

The only thing you could do is make the pdf itself password protected so that it couldn’t be printed or opened up in Illustrator.

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David_McCallum · November 15, 2016, 1:30am

The simple point is this - if it (PDF, image, whatever) can be viewed in a Browser then it is easy to take a screenshot and distribute that.

The only secure way is to not make it publicly available in the first place.

David

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Peter_Tucker1 · November 15, 2016, 9:19am

Thanks Noel, yes we already do the restricting things that can be done in Acrobat Pro

Peter Tucker, Oxford UK - but mobile somewhere iP6

On 15 Nov 2016, at 00:19, Noel Sergeant email@hidden wrote:

The only thing you could do is make the pdf itself password protected so that it couldn’t be printed or opened up in Illustrator.

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