I have been researching copy protection options for ebooks and have come to the conclusion that I could use some help. There are a ton of options out there and many are extremely expensive and probably offer more than we need...
We have a shopping cart in place to sell ebooks in pdf file format. The shopping cart (Lexiconn shopsite) provides the ability to restrict printing of the file, # of download attempts, and will send the URL to the customer automatically. What we need is a way to protect the file from being copied and opened from a different PC and/or by a different user. Does anyone have suggestions on what type of software solution would work best? Is there anything out there that would interface with our current e-commerce solution?
As an aside, we are also looking for a software solution for copy protection of CD-Rs and DVD-Rs masters, as well as protection of e-streaming video.
Take a look at HYPrPDF <url>http://www.hyprlock.com/hyprlock/index.htm</url>
The main problem with PDF protection is that unless you are willing to budget around $45K USD for Adobe's server program for PDF security you probably won't be satisfied with the standard Adobe security. Verify this for yourself by searching for progrms to defeat PDF security.
HYPrPDF uses the orginal PDF security, but it is shrouded by Activ's security.
Of course this won't prevent someone from hiring someone to retype the entire document, which can be done fairly cheaply when outsourced to Asia/India.
Lock Lizard is a fine solution if you don't mind being tied forever to an online service that charges monthly service fees. Unfortunately, like many similar solutions, it only protects distribution. That means PDF password recovery programs can easily steal your PDF content.
HYPrLock/HYPrPDF, on the other hand, not only protects the distribution of your PDF file it also protects the contents. It prevents Password Pirates and PDF hackers from editing, copying, or un-authorized printing and makes "brute force" attacks virtually impossible.
The level of protection offered by HYPrLock is above and beyond programs like Lock Lizard and HYPrLock's one time purchase price of $49.95 make it a lot less expensive.
we looked into many, many products before selecting FileOpen as our ebook DRM solution. We chose them based on their ability to integrate with our ecommerce solution, the fact that they handle pdf files only and are an Adobe partner, the user friendliness of the utility and the ebook ordering and opening process from the customers prospective, their agreement to write any needed perl or php scripts to integrate with our cart and lastly based on cost.
A close second behind FileOpen in our opinion was Crypkey. Equal to FileOpen's solution on most counts except for the fact that they are not affiliated with Adobe and don't soley focus on pdf files. A plus with this solution is that they handle all file types, even protection of videos... The cost was the same. We chose FileOpen over CrypKey because of their affiliation with Adobe and their client list, which consisted of many top publishers.
We looked into LockLizard, Hyperlock, LinkData, Adobe, and a number of other solutions, but based on the details of our ecommerce solution, the number of titles we needed to protect, our budget, and the fact that we wanted customer information on our server...we chose FileOpen.
This is a very general post... but just wanted to let you know that there are other solutions out there for a reasonable cost... happy hunting!
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