Copy Protect PDF With DRM To Prevent Sharing
There
are many different methods that can be employed to copy
protect PDF,
and their effectiveness varies among them. Some methods can be used
to prevent copy and plagiarism of the document contents once the PDF
file is open and on display, while other methods can be used to
prevent opening the file and even prevent sharing and unauthorized
distribution.
The methods used to copy protect PDF from PrintScreen might prevent
novices from copying but today's screen capture software cannot be
prevented by simply limiting keyboard shortcuts. Most solutions for
preventing screen capture can be easily foiled because they rely on
detecting known program names. However some solutions like CopySafe PDF
can provide the most secure copy protection from all save and copy
techniques.
DRM is about
Digital
Rights Management and the term defines methods for controlling
access rights to use and view media. The simplest form of DRM is
password protection where the media (in this case PDF) is compressed
like a ZIP file that requires a key (or password) to unpack it.
Although it can limit access to the contents of the DRM file, it
doesn't prevent anyone from distributing the password with the file.
Most ebook vendors use this method and their naive authors are
suitably impressed.
However to prevent sharing between users, a solution based on a
unique identifier, one that is peculiar to each user, is needed to
ensure that the PDF can only be opened by the user who has your
explicit approval. A couple of identifiers can be used such as MAC
address and hard drive serial number. Unfortunately MAC address
varies with the network device currently used to access the
Internet, i.e: LAN and Wi-Fi cards will use different MAC addresses,
so the use of MAC address is not a stable constant and its use will
escalate the number of calls for support. MAC address is more
commonly used in the bid to support all devices but most of them,
including Apple, Linux and the other OS commonly used in amusement
devices like mobile phones, are incapable of defining that
identifier. Perhaps the biggest drawback with using MAC address is
that it cannot be used without an Internet connection because
without an Internet connection there will be no MAC address. So
offline DRM will be dependent on a token file saved to the users
computer and that token file could be exploited easily... as soon as
the hacker groups find out its decryption key.
Using a computer's hard drive serial number, or rather an algorithm
based on the serial number, the manufacturers name and other
factors, can provide a truly stable constant and one that can never
be duplicated. ArtistScope revolutionized DRM when they introduced this form of
user identification to provide the most secure and most reliable DRM
for all media.
Using unique identifiers for DRM is the only method of preventing
sharing that can be recommended. With it, it doesn't matter how many
copies of a file are distributed to other users or that it has
become a download on a public server, because only those users with
the explicit approval of the vendor can ever open the file to view
or access its information and media.
For the most secure DRM solutions for PDF and video,
CopySafe PDF
will copy protect PDF while
CopySafe
Video will copy
protect video. The licensing for both solutions
include free software upgrades, free support and free DRM portal to
manage your subscribers from a web page.
Author: William Kent
Date: 24th July 2019
Return to DRM and Copy Protection
Comments
| Nom de Plume |
2019-07-25 |
|
I find that the ArtistScope solutions are not supported on mobile devices which
makes them a no-go for me because I don't want a limited audience. Whereas
[removed] provides DRM protection that is supported on all OS including mobile
phones. |
| Kendo
| 2019-07-25 |
|
@Nom de plume, I think that you may have missed the point. Anything that can be
decrypted on all devices, especially mobile phones where apps are comprised of
simple JavaScript and HTML only, is easily exploited. Whereas ArtistScope
solutions cannot be foiled. Best to do some more research, unless you are not
that worried about sharing and only want to slow them down. |
