Quote:
Originally Posted by GraceCreekPress
I am obligated by my agreement with the author to somehow protect the content from copying/printing by the purchaser.
|
You cannot prevent ebooks from being copied. Cannot, cannot, cannot. The purpose of a computer is to copy bits; ebooks are just one more type of bit-collection that can be copied.
You can (attempt) to prevent ebooks from being *readable by unauthorized persons.* This is an _important_ distinction. Anyone can download the file and copy it 500 times on their computer... and each of the copies will have all of the original protections.
If you're required to use commercial DRM software, you may have to look into a Mobi contract, a .lit contract, or ADE locks. (If you're intending to use ADE's DRM, I'd suggest ePub instead of PDF if that's at all possible for you; the ebook readers will thank you for it.)
However: every form of ebook DRM you can place on your ebook has been cracked. (The only two that haven't are Amazon's Topaz, and Sony's .LRX formats.) And even those are susceptible to screencap software & OCR programs. A devoted person can create unauthorized, usable copies & share them.
If you're *not* limited to DRM-by-programming, just a contractual obligation to prevent unauthorized readers & printing, you can lock the files against printing (for most formats), and use some kind of "social DRM"--for example, placing the purchaser's credit card number on each page of a PDF, or on a splash page at the beginning of the ebook. This prevents unwanted sharing without preventing use on whatever device the reader has.