how do people copy-protect their PDFs?

[Carol J. Elkins]

Hi Alison,

So far, the only response has been from someone who uses LiveCycle 
Designer for forms but has no experience with it for ecommerce. Like 
you, I use Acrobat security for PDFs to prevent changing the docs or 
copying the content to clipboard, but it cannot prevent copying the 
entire file. For instance, Company Z has in the past purchased 200 
PDF versions of a book of regulatory standards. My client wants to 
prevent Company Z from simply making copies of the PDF instead of 
buying all 200 copies. Multiply that by thousands of ecommerce 
customers to understand the potential revenue that can be lost.

My client also wants to begin selling individual standards in 
addition to books of standards, much like IEEE does with its Xplore 
Digital Library Subscription Service 
(http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/subscriptions/ieee_standards_online_subscription_information.pdf). 
I have no clue where to begin to research how to accomplish the DRM 
for this, but I know it is not something in a Technical Writer's 
general tool kit. Several years ago I read about dongles, encryption, 
and password management systems, but from a user's perspective they 
are a burden. I want to find a resource/service that makes it easy to 
purchase and download a PDF and hard/impossible to copy the PDF. 
Minimally, I'd like to be able to tell my client how other companies 
do this; if it is impossible to protect the PDF, then at least he'll 
know he's in good company.

If anyone knows of other solutions to accomplish this, I'd appreciate 
your insight. I'm treading way outside my skillset here but would 
like to be able to give my client some basic direction. I wanted to 
ask fellow Framers first; then I'll move on to the LiveCycle forum or 
whatever direction you folks point me in.

Carol

At 03:21 PM 5/6/2013, Alison Craig wrote:
>I think that's an excellent question. Could you post answers on-list 
>or forward copies to me?
>
>Right now I just use standard Adobe Acrobat security for my Frame 
>generated PDFs (I need printable and digital manuals for the Medical 
>Device industry). But we all know how easy that is to crack.