Note: the use of 'you' in my comments refers to your clients, not you personally.
Quote:
Originally Posted by John123
No, I'm not the vendor. Here's what my client asked for:
"Hi John – we are getting more requests from book reviewers etc for a mobi or epub file for them to read rather than a PDF. The problem is the files are open so they can be shared infinitely if someone deliberately or accidentally copied them round. For the books you've converted is it possible to put some security setting on the files that would protect us from that risk?
Thanks"
I know they are being unreasonable, that's a fact of life, ask any supplier to major supermarkets. I just don't even know where to begin. Not quite true, I'm looking at Adept, but fail to see what I need to do to implement even this on their books.
John.
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First off, get in contact with Adobe and price out what a DRM implementation would cost.
The number will be so high that your clients will freak.
Seriously, your clients have no idea how much DRM costs. So, let Adobe educate them on that subject.
Quote:
Originally Posted by John123
Thanks. That would seem to be the simple, however surmountable, approach. I know how to watermark the cover simply in Photoshop. But how do I go about watermarking the epub/mobi text?
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Second, watermark DRM, of any form, is useless unless you are prepared to sue the person that you gave/sold the original copy to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by John123
Actually, this has given me a thought. What would be the best way to embed a reviewers information in the metadata? And use this threat not to re-distribute. Kinda lame I know, but might just be effective on most people.
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Third, don't give the reviewers anything to complain about other than the literary content of the book, or the reviews will focus on the crappy DRM and not the content itself. You know, the reason you're giving the book to the reviewer in the first place.
Embedding a reviewers name is a very, very bad idea. Mainly because you can't guarantee that the right file will go to the right reviewer. Or some random person at your clients won't send any copy of the file to a reviewer. This is called a privacy violation, and the reviewer will love spending their entire review talking about how your clients don't have a clue.
No matter what form of DRM you use, the reviewers are going to assume that is the form of DRM that all of your books will have. So, if you screw it up, they'll make sure everyone knows about it. This is called reputational damage.