E-book security via PDF stamping (a DRM alternative)

[headhunter]

I use Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard. The stamping still doesn't work if I keep a security password on it.

[E-junkie_Guru]

Please email support with the PDFtypewriter version of your PDF file attached for testing:

https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/contact.php



Also, see if there may be some settings in that PDFtypewriter program that somehow locks the files it produces, prevents alteration, or perhaps adds some sort of authoring password to the file that you may not have been aware of.



@headhunter:

Are you specifying your author password in the URL? The read-only password for buyers will not work for this purpose.

[headhunter]

Tyson: I'm starting to think the problem is semantics. (I hope so, because then I can start stamping!)



There is no password to open my document (aka, Document Open Password, aka User Password). Anyone can open it.



What I have set is a Permissions Password (aka, Master Password) that prevents copying text, editing the doc and extracting pages.



To make sure we're talking about the same thing, in Acrobat's Doument Properties/Security tab, I select Password Security. Within that section, I check "Restrict editing and printing of the document" then permit printing (hi-res) and the "accessibility" option, but prohibit page extraction, copying text, etc.



That's the password I have.



1. When I set the URL in e-junkie so I can stamp, should I even include that password?



2. Do the Y/N settings in your URL supersede my Permissions password?



Thanks again. BTW, I took my PDF product live this morning, sales & payments went off without a hitch. PayPal plays nice with e-junkie. Even my lawyer is impressed! My first time with you guys -- good experience.

[riley]

I got it to work thanks. I removed all security type settings or encoding and just made a plain pdf. The plain PDF was stamped. Since I dont need a password for my pdf this works fine. Thank you

[headhunter]

Riley, I got that to work, too, but I need some protection on my product (PDF).

[E-junkie_Guru]

We have just added this as a note to our initial post giving instructions on our PDF Stamping:



We can only stamp password-locked PDFs where the Compatibility option has been set to "Acrobat 5.0 And Later" (or lower), not "Acrobat 6.0 And Later" nor higher. This is also good practice in general, to ensure the broadest number of buyers can open your file anyway, even if you're not using PDF Stamping.



Also, each stamped PDF we issue to buyers will be edit-locked with a random author password, regardless of your original author password or whether the file was password protected to begin with. If you have a read-only password set, that will be unaffected and retained in the stamped file issued to each buyer.

[werebear]

Just wanted to let you know two things:



*The PDF stamping thrilled me! While I really liked your other features, that sealed the deal.



*I used Open Office/Mac with an HTML file that had internal bookmarks, and the PDF seems to work with your system just fine. Kept the bookmarks and everything.



The Open Office PDF feature on the Mac seems to be topnotch.

[solaria]

Very useful addition to your service!



How about if we find a stamped PDF file somewhere - uploaded on some forum or on a server for sharing of files? What to do next?



How about if I find somewhere a stamped file from another author?



Do you have a black list for customers, who share for international downloading their purchased files?

[E-junkie_Guru]

If you want to be a "good samaritan", you can try to identify and contact the author/seller of any stamped file you might find. We don't maintain any centralized "blacklist", as we have no way of knowing who may share their file or how after a purchased download from us, and most serious crooks use fake information and disposable emails for every instance of fraudulent activity anyway, so there'd be no consistent information worth blocking even if it were possible.



Really, the stamping is primarily meant to discourage filesharing in the first place, as even pirates will be reluctant to share files which have any personally-identifying data on them and would strongly prefer to share only those files which are completely anonymous/generic and untraceable to any specific source or purchase.

[clare]

I am also having trouble with this feature. I've followed the steps as described, pasted the code and used my PDF file password (which is entirely alphanumeric), and still no stamp. I've set the compatibility/encryption on the document for Adobe 3 or later.



We have a product we'd like to release this weekend -- any chance of solving this quickly?



Thanks!



Clare

[E-junkie_Guru]

PDF stamping should be working normally. Please provide your original file (not an unstamped download copy, since we scramble the author password on every downloaded copy) along with the author password to our support email address, so we can run some tests:

https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/contact.php

[clare]

Thanks, Tyson.



File is on the way, as requested!



I do have what might be some good news for those of us struggling with stamping password-protected PDFs.



I tried stamping a non-password protected version of my file set to "web settings" (which translates to low resolution printing), and setting the e junkie settings to printing "y" but copy "n". When I opened it on both Adobe and Nitro PDF (the program I use to create PDFs) it registered the same security settings I would have used with a password -- no changes were allowed, and printing was low-res. I also tried copying it from Adobe Reader and then opening it in PDF -- same results.



If I'm interpreting these results correctly, that means that we could upload non-password protected PDFs, use the stamping feature with copy set to "n" (and printing set to whatever we needed) and get the same results we'd get with a password. Seems like a possible workaround?



If anyone sees a loophole here, please let me know, but this seems like good news.



Best,

Clare



UPDATE: I tried to replicate the results above and they didn't work the second time. No stamping, no security features, nothing. The feature does seem to be unstable.

[E-junkie_Guru]

Every stamped copy of a PDF file we issue does have a randomized author password added to prevent the buyer from opening their file in a PDF editing program, regardless of your original author password or your choice of print/copy permissions in the stamping URL. If your original PDF has a read-only password, that would be retained as-is in every stamped PDF we issue.



When you tested the second time, did you remember to wait at least 15 minutes after uploading the new file? Also, bear in mind that stamping can only be applied for links issued as the result of an actual checkout, even if only an E-junkie Free Checkout; files issued by "Send free download link" or via a free link sent in an Update Newsletter cannot be stamped.

[clare]

Hi Tyson,



Thanks for your reply.



I did wait the 15 minutes, and just to be sure, I also tried both the secured and the unsecured version again this morning after leaving them up overnight. No stamp. Wish I could figure out why it worked that one time and then never again.



The random author password is terrific, and seems to mean that if I could get the stamp to work on the version without the password, I'd be good to go. Now if I could only figure out how to do that... :-)



Clare

[E-junkie_Ninja]

Claire,



I responded to you via e-mail and I'll also place my responds here. AT this point what we have been able to see is that the Publish Password for your file does not match what you have entered in for the product. You will want to verify the password is not accidently misspelled.

[clare]

Hi,



I, too, responded by email but will respond here.



1. The passwords match. Obviously, that's the first thing I would have checked! And I just verified again that they do, in fact, match.



2. Even without the password, the stamping still doesn't work.



Best,

Clare

[E-junkie_Guru]

Clare, I think we've resolved this via email, but for the benefit of others who may be reading along here, I'll paste the explanation and advice I gave you:



It's really a fairly simple process, and there's always a clear reason why a given file upload would fail to get prepped for stamping. If a new upload gets properly prepped for stamping, that file should then get stamped for every checkout, but if it fails to get prepped in the first place, then it will never get stamped.



If you have a known-working file uploaded that gets stamped reliably, and then you replace that by uploading a new file, that introduces a chance that the new file may inadvertently have the wrong settings which would cause it to fail to get prepped for stamping properly -- e.g., password locked with Acrobat 7.x compatibility rather than 5.x or lower, or password-locked when you meant to upload an unlocked original, etc.



If you're going to be updating your original file frequently and want to streamline that procedure for stamping reliability, I would suggest if you always upload originals without an authoring password (in which case the compatibility level should not matter), which would become locked with a random authoring password in due course of stamping anyway, and then do a test checkout 15+ minutes after every new upload to verify you receive a stamped copy of the file (which indicates the new upload got prepped properly), that should be a reliable solution.

[ajf]

This is a very cool idea.



Is there a way to choose which field gets stamped?



My application: I sell reports to corporations. I plan to sell two versions:

A: Individual license (to be used only by the person buying)

B: Corporate license (can be redistributed within the company)



They will have different product ids and prices (and be physically different file).



Can I setup checkout for version A to stamp "First name Last name" and checkout for version B to stamp "Company name"?



Thanks,

Adam

[E-junkie_Ninja]

Adam,



Currently are stamping will only stamp the buyer's name, email and their unique Transaction ID. I will pass on a suggestion to development to allow for options like you are requesting.

[ajf]

I got it working but am still having trouble getting one of the adobe PDF settings to carry-over to the stamped document.



- I uploaded a pdf with password security (5.0) that allows printing but disallows edits and copying

- I added password to the html

- I purchased my pdf at $0.00



Stamping works great. (cool feature)



The system added a password that I cannot break. (OK)



Adobe document status now reads:

'You can print this document." (Good - I want this feature)

"You can edit this document." (Bad - see below)

"You cannot copy from this document." (Good - for my work.)



So, it seems that the stamping changed one of my preferred Adobe settings. Using Acrobat 7.0, I was able to deface the document -- highlight text, add strikethroughs.



Question: How can I get the stamped document to retain all of my adobe acrobat preferences?



Thanks in advance for your help.



Adam