Basically, there ain't no real way to block users from copying content if
its on their screen. All they gotta do is click that nice "Prt Scrn" key.
There are a variety of other ways a determined user could employ to hang on
to content. I'd say its pretty unrelistic to expect to find some scheme to
prevent users from viewing content that is subscription-based.
Now, if you developed a standalone .EXE that contained a viewer, and you
encrypted the content with a time/date based public-private key encryption
scheme, it would be possible to generate some sort of key that was time
sensitive. But clearly this ain't no teeny weenie thing. You could possibly
do it with a client-side Java applet that had to be obtained from the server
in conjunction with some sort of subscription scheme, but that ain't pretty,
either...
Moral of the story: The Security Vs. Effort Graph (best viewed with a
monospace font like Courier New)
s ********************************
e ***
c *
u *
r *
i *
t *
y *
================================
E F F O R T
In my ASCII chart of security vs. effort, you'll see that at a certain
level, you have to expend a tremendous amount of effor to gain only a
marginal additional level of security.
I think this "never copyable content" is wayyyyyy up there in the chart. I
think I'd shoot for "downloadable by authorized folks only". Much less
effort, nearly same security.
Alan McCollough
Web Programmer
Allaire Certified ColdFusion Developer
Alaska Native Medical Center
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nat Papovich [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2000 10:20 AM
> To: Fusebox
> Subject: RE: password protection for PDF files
>
> Steve - even with the security model you mention, why can't a user
> select-all/copy/paste the contents of the protected pdf into word, and get
> the contents that way? Does Adobe disallow the select/copy?
>
> Nat Papovich
> ICQ 32676414
> "If it was hard to write,"
> says the Real Programmer,
> "it should be hard to understand."
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen M Aylor [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2000 10:42 AM
> To: Fusebox
> Subject: Re: password protection for PDF files
>
>
> I got the impression it was a distributor price list ......
>
> Once theyve been give file access and can right click on the file to just
> download it to their local HD - security is out the window on the
> document.
> Sems a waste of good dev time to create a "security" mechanism that doesnt
> control doc access after the fact its been downloaded.
>
> My $.02
>
> Steve
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joseph Higgins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "Fusebox" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2000 10:09 AM
> Subject: Re: password protection for PDF files
>
>
> > You could use Javascript in the form so that if a field is set to allow
> them
> > to see the info it is displayed, else you set the field values to blank.
> > That is if you are using forms.
> >
> >
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